What's in a Moment?
by Theraxs
Summary: When the time came for him to die on the planet Namek, Vegeta falls unwitting victim to a small hiccup in the Universe. Now, alive despite Frieza's best attempts, he has to establish just where he stands in the grand scheme of things; pre-determined pawn, or writer of his own destiny?
1. My Kingdom for a helping hand

_**AN: **__Okay, admit it; you were touched when Vegeta cried on Namek. For just a few moments, the high and mighty Prince of all Saiyans was mortal, and he knew it. Spilling his heart out to the one he had vowed to kill in a final act of surprising vulnerability. And then he died. And when he was inadvertently revived by the dragon, he was a complete dick once again._

_But what if he hadn't died? Seemingly simple change and, might I add, precariously close to the plot of 'Bringer of Death' (Love ya'!), it nonetheless begs a whole multitude of questions about what would be changed. So, let us follow the story of a Vegeta, ready to open up his heart to his bitterest rival, that survived Frieza's final Death Beam. Or rather, avoided it._

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The power of a Super Saiyan was most definitely one solely for combat. It held no other purpose but for the wielder of the golden light to become stronger and stronger. This was the ultimate fate of any saiyan who managed to ascend: become the strongest. Period.

Vegeta, prince of the saiyans was not destined to know this power this day, for he was broken and beaten on the barren landscape of planet Namek. Barely managing to find the strength to prop himself onto his elbows and directly face the direct cause of his current and past pain; Frieza, tyrannical overlord of most of the known galaxy and destroyer of races and worlds.

In stark contrast to the Prince, the earth-raised saiyan by the name of Goku was standing tall, unwavering in the face of such an overbearing evil threat. Looking at him now, Vegeta could practically see the fabled strength of the Super Saiyan about the third-class. It no longer mattered that this man born lower than he had risen up and claimed the legend. No, the only thing of importance was the complete destruction of Frieza, slaughterer of their entire species.

"That's right Frieza, you're not dealing with your average saiyan warrior anymore. Kakarot has climbed beyond and become what you fear most: the Super Saiyan!" Vegeta laughed then, a laugh born from exhaustion and the look of alarm that flitted across the depot's face for the briefest of moments. That alarm, however, quickly turned to annoyance at the Prince's claim and the arcosian lifted a hand to discharge a violet Death Beam from his finger and through the Saiyan's heart.

Just as the youngest of the Cold Dynasty fired his attack, fate was rewritten by an invisible hand. In another time, Vegeta was skewered by the thin beam and died there in the dirt, opening his defenses to Goku in a teary request to finish what he could not. In this life, however, all of that changed with seemingly the smallest of occurrences: Vegeta lost his balance.

Falling backward, the Prince was spared from the wrath of the ki projection, only suffering a glancing burn that ran up the left side of his face in a straight and slim line. Clutching at his latest injury, the Prince acknowledged that Goku had moved to stand between him and Frieza, acting as a shield. Vegeta could only gawk. They had been mortal enemies not a day before, and now here he wa been defended by the saiyan from Earth. What could possibly promote such goodwill towards one who would kill you without hesitation?

"Krillin, take Vegeta away from here!" Goku commanded without taking his eyes off of the ivory skinned monster. The bald dwarf ran up and carefully draped Vegeta's arm around his shoulders, needing to readjust somewhat to accommodate the pauldrons on his armor. In his confused and weary state, the Prince didn't object to being handled as such, merely looking at Goku's back in what could only be described as incredulity.

"And just what makes you think that I would let anyone leave here alive?" Frieza spoke up, his low hissing voice sending a chill up the spines o everyone present, excluding Goku who remained resolute. Raising his finger once again, Frieza attempted to fire another Death Beam after Krillin and his charge, but the Earth raised Saiyan materialized in it's path and batted it away with minimal effort.

"Your fight is with me now!" Goku declared, assuming his favored fighting stance before leaping forward at incredible speeds, fist colliding with the tyrant's raised forearm their combat had commenced, but what neither could know was just how differently it would turn out after destiny was forever altered.

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"Why did Goku have to destroy the healing tank? Krillin inquired out loud, annoyed more than anything. Fortunately, the one other tank in the med lab was still operational and it was in this that the Z-Fighter deposited the wounded saiyan. Following said saiyan's mumbled instructions, Krillin was able to initiate the healing process, transparent blue liquid filling up the sealed tank as a breath mask attached itself to the prince's face.

"Even though I don't trust you, or even like you Vegeta, I hope that you get better soon. What Frieza did to you was just monstrous and I wouldn't wish it on anybody." His head jerked to the side, sensing the huge power levels of his closest friend and the very monster he had just been speaking of. Looking back, he saw that Vegeta's eyes were closed and assumed that he had finally lost consciousness. Double-checking that everything was working as it should, Krillin departed as fast as he could, unwilling to leave his friends out there by themselves.

But Vegeta was still awake, and had heard everything the short man had said. Once again, a very recent enemy had helped save him, even though he could easily have finished off the Prince in his weakened state. How was it that these earthlings were so compassionate in the middle of a warzone? It went against everything Vegeta had been taught and came to accept as life and only further confused him on the whole matter of morality and its importance to himself.

Once again he had been surpassed by the same saiyan, once again shown mercy when he would have massacred them if the roles had been reversed. Was there truly something to being kind hearted? If Kakarot was just a weak third class saiyan with an overabundance of emotions, then why was it that he was the one facing Frieza right now and holding his own, if his energy sensing skills were to be trusted. It just wasn't the saiyan way. Then again, the saiyan way had eventually killed off all who upheld their bloodthirsty ways, leaving him the very last, and that had been a close thing.

Perhaps…the walls he had built around himself to better survive in a life of constant genocides and war were now what would drag him down, keep him from ever obtaining that next level he had literally dreamed about for years. Perhaps the cold hearted and ruthless path was one that led only to oblivion. It wasn't something he could just change overnight, not by a long shot. But it was something that he could feasibly change…if he wanted to.

Did he?

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Forced to remain in the tank with his thoughts, Vegeta followed the fight with his senses, trying to decipher exactly what was occurring from the vague details. He felt Goku's power jump to new heights multiple times, but each time Frieza revealed more of his own power to match his opponent. It was a losing battle on the saiyan's part; Frieza was still holding back his power, of that Vegeta was certain, while Goku was breaking his limits again and again through out the fight for naught.

But then, he had felt it; a purely massive source of energy positioned above the planet itself. It was mind boggling in scope, overflowing with highly potent power just waiting to be unleashed upon the unlucky bastard it was aimed at. It didn't take long for the Prince to recognize it, after all, he had nearly been slain by just such an anomaly a few weeks prior: Kakarot had summoned another Spirit Bomb and was going to use it against Frieza.

Vegeta couldn't help the swarm of bubbles that rose from his mask as he tried to laugh. He knew that Frieza would be overcome by the attack, just as he almost was, especially as he could feel that it was still growing in power by the second, already triple the power of the one used on Earth. But he wasn't doing anything. Vegeta could feel Kakarot stationary in one spot, most likely charging the Spirit Ball, but Frieza was right in front of him and his undoubted confusion on the matter would only last another minute more at the very most.

Now Vegeta found himself tensing in anticipation. If Kakarot didn't finish with the attack and soon, then he would be toast and their last chance of beating Frieza would die with him. There was a surge of energy from the tyrant, but Goku remained alive and apparently still gathering energy. Vegeta had rarely felt so helpless before, knowing that Goku just needed a small window to finish his technique but unable to act due to his injuries.

Fortunately for them all, the namekian's power level suddenly shot through the roof and seemingly sneak attacked Frieza, for the despot's signature shot away from their group and came to rest half a mile away. The namekian's power plummeted after that, but it was just the opportunity Vegeta dared to hope Goku needed. Several seconds later, Frieza came roaring back, his outrage actually being translated through his aura. Just as it seemed the namekian's (what had the runt called him?) time was up, the bald man and the son of Goku intervened with what was clearly the last of their strength.

And then, as Frieza created a powerful attack to kill them all, Goku threw the Spirit Bomb. Just from the sensations he was getting, Vegeta could only imagine that it must have been a dazzling sight, Frieza being so thoroughly overshadowed by the Bomb. And then the detonation whited out his senses, blinding him to what had transpired.

Slowly, he could pick out the individual life energies of Krillin and Gohan, and then Piccolo (yes, that was it), follwed swiftly by Goku's. So, they had all managed to survive the blast. A strange feeling welled up inside the saiyan's stomach. It wasn't happiness, or gratitude, but something akin to closure, like a vey long chapter in his life had finally come to a close. Relaxing in his pod, Vegeta cast his senses out as far as it could go, looking to see who else had survived. A miniscule signature caught his attention and he was mildly surprised to find that the earthling girl had also lived through the entire ordeal.

But while he was focusing on the small levels, he felt another that was rapidly rising and-

'No,' Vegeta thought in a panic, 'no he couldn't possibly have lived through that!' But the memory of doing just that spurred him into action. He wasn't fully healed, but enough that he didn't care about a few more minutes. Fumbling with the internal controls, he opened the hatch without bothering to drain the fluid first. Before the healing liquids had even touched the floor, Vegeta had taken off through the previously excavated hole from Goku's exit.

He was immensely stronger than he had been before, incomparable to all but Kakarot and Frieza, but he didn't have the luxury of time to admire his new level. Even as he sped towards the battlefield for all he was worth, he distinctly felt Piccolo's energy drop to near nothing, a sure sign of tragedy. Just as he came into sight of the series of islands the fighters were located on, Krillin's body rose into the air unnaturally before violently exploding, the monk's cry for help still ringing through the air.

Landing in a crouch next to the half saiyan and the downed namkeian, Vegeta could only confirm that Frieza had indeed survived the Spirit Bomb and was enacting his revenge. The Frost Demon looked worse for wear, with one eye forced shut, dozens of scorch marks all across his body and half of his tail was once more missing. But otherwise he was still standing, and very, very angry by the looks of it.

"Ah, Vegeta, I was so hoping that you would come back for another helping of retribution. And I see that I've left my mark, how fitting." He was referring to the scar that had formed where the Death Beam had scored the Prince, unable to fully heal as he had left the tank prematurely. Vegeta would carry it for the rest of his life, but seeing as that seemed to be a matter of minutes he wasn't too concerned with aesthetics right then.

"How a lizard like you could have survived that attack is a mystery, but I intend to make sure that you stay in the ground this time!" Vegeta challenged back, stalling for time to think up any kind of strategy.

That was when the sky darkened and lightning began to coalesce.

They had all neglected to observe Goku after the death of his second oldest friend. Trembling form barely controlled rage, he was growling indecipherably, eyes unfocused and head bowed. Finally a distinguishable word came through the rant.

"Frieza!"

A lightning bolt struck the ground not ten feet away, but the normally peaceful saiyan didn't seem to notice it, lost in his well of anger.

"I won't…let you…get away with this!" His words came in choppy bursts, but the message was clear.

'Gods, his power is shooting up like never before, and it isn't stopping!' Vegeta marveled, watching with wide eyes as Kakarot jerked his head back, a flash of gold coming and going in the blink of an eye. But then he did it again, and again, each time the flash became more pronounced, revealed to be the normally pitch black hair turning blonde mere moments at a time. But Vegeta could tell that the build-up was almost over and, sure enough, with a roar that shook the heavens and all that sat atop them, Goku finalized his transformation and became the Legend.

Standing tall, the golden light of his aura cast a glow about him that only succeeded in making him appear even fiercer. Golden hair stood up on end, now similar to Vegeta's own style, and his cobalt eyes had changed to startling teal. He was glaring at Frieza with such righteous anger that Vegeta was glad not to be his opponent this time. And there was no mistaking it anymore; Kakarot had truly become a Super Saiyan.

"Wha- what is this?!" Frieza blanched, an impressive feat considering his usual complexion. "I thought saiyans only turned into monkeys!"

"Gohan, Vegeta," Goku addressed them over his shoulder, "take Piccolo and find Bulma and escape on the ship I came to Namek in. I'll take care of Frieza." Gohan immediately took a step forward, a stricken look on his young face.

"But Dad-"

"I am your father, now do as I say!" Goku snarled with uncharacteristic ferocity. Vegeta saw that the other saiyan was only just containing the tumultuous emotions that were running rampart through him, and safety of his son in the coming fight was far from assured. Fortunately, after a moment of shock and indecision, Gohan's face became serious, nodding in consent as he drapped Piccolo's arm over his shoulder, exactly like Krillin had for Vegeta just a short while ago. Taking to the air, he flew off relatively slowly to prevent any further harm to his mentor.

Of course, Frieza was not going to let them leave alive, but he had learned not to just shout his intentions from the last time. With a flash, he had fired off a charged Death Beam at the retreating child. Goku moved with incredible speed and appeared before the tyrant, grabbing his wrist in a deadlock. The ki beam, however, made it past the Super Saiyan and was unopposed from killing two more of the Z-Fighters…or at least it would have been had the Prince not been there.

Utilizing his increased speed, Vegeta sprang into the air and kicked the head of the attack away, succeeding though his entire leg pulsed with pain from the energy coursing thorough the deceptively small beam. The look on Frieza's face was absolutely priceless, having his hand constricted while having to watch his attempted murder fail utterly.

"We're leaving Kakarot, but I expect you to win so that we can have our rematch. I still owe you one," the Prince chuckled darkly. Goku half looked back at him, a grin of his own on his face.

"Looking forward to it. Now go."

Vegeta didn't mind being ordered around, just this once. Kakarot had a bit of authority at the moment. Taking to the air with a blast, he quickly overtook Gohan.

"Boy, do you know where your father's ship is?" Gohan merely nodded. "Good. Get the namekian there and I'll retrieve that annoying woman and we'll take off." Not waiting for any further confirmation, he rocketed off into the green horizon searching with his senses for the earthling. It took a good deal of time, but he eventually found her on top of a spire of rock.

"Woman!" That was the extent of any warning before he scooped her up without even landing, making a right angle turn to track where he could sense Gohan's energy. Bulma was completely flustered, unable to comprehend the ridiculously fast movements until a few seconds later. When it finally dawned on her who had picked her up, she began to scream, a trend for her since starting the voyage.

"Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" She pounded her fists against chest, a completely feeble action that only served to annoy the saiyan. Knowing full well that injuring her would serve to lengthen his life span should Goku find out, Vegeta restrained himself from knocking her unconscious or scaring her into silence. Putting on a fresh burst of speed, Bulma was forced to momentarily cease her screaming as the wind was now coming at her in gale force.

"Listen to me Earth woman," Vegeta started, his voice somehow exempt from the winds affect, "I will not harm you so long as you don't give me a reason. Kakarot is fighting Frieza and this planet might not survive the battle. Me, you, Kakarot's brat and the namekian are going to escape on his ship. So keep your whining to a minimum or you won't even make it that far."

Sufficiently cowed by the harsh news, Bulma clammed up, trembling noticeably. Grunting in apathy, Vegeta continued onward, sensing Gohan's power come to a halt and assumed that that was the location of the ship. Off in the distance, enormous flashes of various colored lights erupted and died in seconds, marking the struggle between the legend and the nightmare.

All at once, a horrifying flash enveloped everything and Vegeta feared that the end had come: Frieza had decided to cut his losses and destroy the entire planet to eliminate all resistance. But after several long seconds of blinding white light, the saiyan prince realized that he was still very much alive and the planet wasn't gone quite yet. The sky had taken on a fearful crimson color, harshly different from the previous green. The planet held, but judging by the tremors that now crumpled the land like sand, their time was very limited. Resuming his flight, Vegeta quickly came into view of the spherical ship.

Landing at the foot of the ramp of Capsule 2, Vegeta deposited (read: dropped) Bulma and marched inside where the boy had laid the namekian carefully on the floor.

"Kakarot managed to get from the Earth to here in just several days?" Vegeta gawked, astounded by the size of the ship. Saiyan pods and the Capital ships used by Frieza and his ilk would have taken about a year to make the same journey. Just who could possibly have out machined the brightest in the Planet Trade Organization so casually?

"Yup, ain't she a beauty?" Bulma piped up as she walked past, having regained her nerve upon seeing the familiar workmanship. "My dad made this from reverse engineering Goku's pod from when he was a baby. Faster than anything even the namekians could come up with, this baby will have us back home in less than a week."

"An Earthman created this?" Vegeta quizzed, not quite believing it. Perhaps humans made up for in brains what they lacked in brawn.

Further speculation was cut off as a video screen descended from the ceiling, showing only static for a few seconds before the visage of Dr. Briefs himself appeared.

"Aha, got it working again! Bulma, is that you? Thank heavens you're all right. We were just-" whatever he was about to say was cut off as Chi-Chi forced him off screen, worried eyes immediately seeking out her son.

"Oh Gohan!" She cried, relief obvious. Vegeta watched the teary exchange between mother and son with some awkwardness. His own mother had died in battle when he was still very young and Tarble had only just been sent off planet. She had never shown him what this nagging woman was showing her son. Between them had been the connection of once being two inside one, but like any saiyan mother, she had not grown attached. None of them did in case that child was killed for any reason, the mental damages unfit for a warrior race.

Shutting himself away from such thoughts, Vegeta turned away from the scene and stood at the open doorway, tracking the climatic battle that was happening. Alarmingly, Frieza's power had increased to the point of being equal to Goku's, the true upper limits of his power. Looking back, it had been absolutely laughable to think that he had urged the arcosian to transform so that he could beat him at his maximum. Vegeta was facing many hard truths that day, none the least of which being that it had been a third class to attain the mantle of Super Saiyan and not he, but with all the stops pulled out, he could tell that he would never have matched in any time during their fight. He had been played with.

That angered him to no end. His pride was not something to be trifled with by anyone, least of all the tyrant that had enslaved him for twenty long and excruciating years. Pain was fleeting, but humiliation lasted for as long as it was remembered, and Vegeta had a very good memory. For that, the Prince had vowed everyday of his life since he was ten that the despot's end would be at his hands and that every single instance of demeaning-

His train of thought petered off uncharacteristically, his plans of revenge disappearing into the back of his mind. Why couldn't he focus on his hatred of Frieza, his driving motivation?

Understanding dawned on him as he realized that Goku's energy had disappeared from his senses. Had the Icejin actually managed to defeat the other saiyan? Turning to look back at the small group of survivors, he saw that Gohan was also in shock, looking off in a daze toward where the fight had been occurring. Breathing heavily, Vegeta thought quickly, outright refusing to believe that the saiyan from Earth had been killed so quickly.

"Boy! Take the ship and get off of the planet. I will go to where Frieza is and provide whatever assistance I can to your father. Go now, while there's still a Namek to leave." Gohan stepped forward, youthful face exhibiting anguish at his father's possible demise.

"But I need to find my dad!"

Vegeta was sorely tempted to swat the child over the head until he understood, but experience stayed his hand. He had been where the half saiyan now stood, desperate to see his father though he already knew it was too late.

"You're father will be fine. Frieza is no match for him at this level and I suspect he is only inconvenienced right now. You need to escape with your life because if neither your father nor I survive, then you will truly be the last of the saiyan line. You may be a half-breed, but I saw first hand the fighting spirit that runs through your veins. You must live, if only for your heritages sake."

Not waiting for a response, the prince swiveled about and took off as fast as he possibly could, gratified to note that the boy didn't pursue him. Whatever happened here this day, Vegeta was adamant that the saiyan race would not be wiped out entirely, even if it had to live on through diluted generations. Saiyan tradition would have forbidden any cross breeding, but Vegeta was beginning to care less and less about tradition.

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It wasn't hard to find him. After all, Frieza had absolutely no experience in masking his power level. Floating in the air about a sprawling fissure that was filled with creeping lava, the pale skinned dictator was disgustingly bulked out, apparently to compensate for his fullest power.

"Ah, Vegeta. I see that you didn't scamper off and hide like I thought. It will make killing you so much simpler," Frieza purred in self-satisfaction.

"Enough of your drivel! Where is Kakarot?" Vegeta snarled in response, wasting no time in the almost customary banter. He wouldn't stand a chance against the tyrant for long by himself and he needed to find the other saiyan quickly.

"Oh? You mean that Super Saiyan named Goku? Hmph! What a pathetic legend; he didn't even last five minutes against my true might."

Cold dread seeped down Vegeata's spine. If what Frieza was saying was true, then all hope was lost.

"Liar! There is no way you could have beaten him!" He challenged, shaking his fist in fury at his former master. Frieza merely chuckled and relaxed, showing that he saw the prince as no real threat.

"Oh but it's true. Not even a great super saiyan could survive a dip in molten lava," he pointed down at the fissure while bursting into cruel laughter, mocking the very memory of his opponent.

But Vegeta was no longer listening. He could only stare in absolute horror at the flowing lava, knowing Frieza to be correct. No one he had ever met could withstand the incredible heat of magma.

And like that, Vegeta knew regret. The one man he had ever considered to be of any real importance as an enemy was slain, piteously and without a shred of respect. The greatest of their dwindled race had left this plane, leaving behind grieving family, friends and a prince who hated the very idea of respecting anyone, though that was exactly what he was doing, from that there was no doubt. The most…honorable man he would quite probably ever meet was dead, and their fated rematch would never come.

In that moment, Vegeta no longer cared about beating Frieza. He didn't care about attaining the legendary Super Saiyan status. He didn't even care about escaping from this planet alive. His heart had been a frozen block for decades, but now he felt several painful emotions thaw, warm and completely reenergize his passions.

Desolation filled his icy heart.

Followed by numbness.

Then clarity.

And then, at last, the prince of all saiyans felt unholy FURY.

"GRAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" A scream of indescribable magnitude escaped his mouth, rending the air with its unfiltered rawness Blinded by the emotion that was burning his heart with a holy tenacity, Vegeta loosed every restraint he had, allowing his very being to blossom right there in the dark namekian sky.

"Wha- what is happening?!" Frieza shouted into the air, unwilling to admit that he already knew.

"RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!" Vegeta's body jerked involuntarily, newfound power spasaming inside of him, aligning to its new host. The process was completed as he bent forward before throwing his arms and legs out as far as they would go with and unearthly scream, his hair igniting with a golden light and eyes lightening to blue-green.

Left panting from his exertion, Vegeta looked at his torn and bloodied gloves, taking the full scope of the power he now wielded. He had become a Super Saiyan.

"No! Not you too!" Frieza quaked, holding his hands up defensively. Teal eyes locked onto him, rage burning beneath the surface like a volcano ready to erupt.

"You killed the only man I would ever consider my equal, and you did it without a thought. But now you have awakened your retribution Frieza." Straightening up, he clenched his fists. "I am vengeance made flesh. I am the harbinger of your destruction. I am everything that has been wronged and will not tolerate it any longer." His voice rose right along with his anger. "I am the dark half of the righteous, of the justified. I am power personified. I am Vegeta, and I am Legendary!"

Golden light burst to life around him, a new sun on Namek. In utter terror, Frieza tried to turn and flee, but found the prince already in his path with a swinging left hook. Rocked by the blow, Frieza attempted a retaliatory roundhouse kick, but his leg sailed through a dissolving image of the saiyan, the real one reappearing to ram his fist into the despotic overlord's stomach.

Retching up blood and bile, Frieza couldn't move due to the pain and thus found himself an easy target for the point blank ki blast that sent him hurdling head over heels toward the ground. Before he could land, Vegeta once again materialized in his path, grabbing his mutilated tail and swing him around by it. Releasing his hold, the prince sent the fellow royalty back into the air, tumbling about helplessly. Cupping his hands by his side, he gathered a charge of energy in scant seconds, firing the fully primed Galick Gun after the tyrant.

However, Frieza only just managed to recover in time to deflect the blast with backhanded strike, singing the flesh there. Spitting with rage, Frieza returned with a beam of his own; black with crackling red forks of energy marking its pure maliciousness. Instead of dodging or deflecting it, Vegeta caught it head on, pushed down through a dozen meters of rock by the force of the attack. But it quickly came to a halt and the prince heaved it upwards into the sky, letting it detonate harmlessly above them.

"Die monkey! DIE!" The frost demon began to hurl Death Balls with reckless abandon, forcing the ascended saiyan to dart away at great speed. But just when Frieza believed he had his enemy on the ropes, an iron grip took a hold of his hand, stopping the next attack cold. Looking back in surprise and no small amount of terror, Frieza found himself looking into the displeased face of a very much alive Goku.

"H- how? I killed you!"

"Try harder next time," Goku shot back, not releasing his hold on the alien. With a 'whish', Vegeta appeared a few feet away, amazement on his aristocratic features.

"Kakarot, you're alive!" He managed to reel in the relief he was feeling, not wanting his rival to see it.

Looking up at the other saiyan, Goku beamed with surprise and gladness.

"Look at you Vegeta. I've only been a super saiyan for a few minutes and you've already caught up with me. Somehow I'm not surprised." Vegeta grinned back at him, cocky as before.

"You'd think I would let a clown have all of the glory? Fat chance."

It was then that Frieza managed to wrench his arm away, eyes wide in panic as he looked between the two super saiyans. Just one had been a match for him, what chance did he possibly have against two. Impossibly, his own ego and denial prevented him from accepting defeat, insisting to himself that he was still the mightiest in the galaxy. None could ever surpass him, let alone a feces flinging, pelt wearing, simple-minded monkey.

"Never mind the pleasantries; you will both die right here and now! Face the full wrath of Frieza!"

A Supernova attack bloomed from a raised fingertip, inflating until it was of equal size to the spirit bomb that had been used against him a little while ago. Cackling with manic glee, he threw it as hard as he could at the two saiyans while retreating to a safe distance to observe the carnage it would bring.

A wave of his hand brought about the planet-shattering explosion, completely enveloping the two golden haired warriors. Now positively guffawing in his insane merriment, Frieza relished the ultimate destruction of the two greatest pains in his-

The fireball died away, revealing a new crater in the surface of the already unstable planet. The two saiyans however, were exactly where they had been, a golden bubble of light surrounding them. Dropping the synchronized shield, the two of them faced the once more terrified overlord shoulder to shoulder. While it was true that neither could claim to be on any good terms with the other, they were united in this instance, in the fight against the one that had made them an endangered species.

"You are going to regret that one Frieza," Vegeta remarked coldly.

"Now, you will face justice for all the innocents that you have ever killed," Goku declared.

Frieza could only growl like an animal, delusions making him ready himself for the coming fight, still believing himself superior.

The heavens shook.

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King Kai was observing the whole event with rapt attention, his three current pupils clamoring for an update. He had relayed his intentions for the last wish of the namekian Dragon Balls to Lord Guru, but Goku had intervened, demanding that the wish be changed so that only Frieza, himself and Vegeta would remain on the dying planet. After much protesting, the Kai had finally relented and Dende was given his task.

Now, all the others were back on Earth and waiting for any sign of who had won the fight. On Namek, Frieza was doing his all to battle two super saiyans simultaneously, and even managed to land several good hits. But his fate was unavoidable and he was at long last defeated, cut into several pieces by the very attack he had been using to try and kill his opponents.

Watching telepathically, King Kai witnessed Vegeta ready to execute the defenseless ruler once and for all, but Goku insisted that they spare him. After a very heated and tense exchange, Vegeta actually backed down, though not at all pleased about it. Goku bestowed some of his energy to the downed despot before he and Vegeta took off towards the Capital ship, allowing their super saiyan auras to recede.

Before they had gotten far, Frieza unleashed one last attack with the very energy he had just been given, refusing to allow himself to be beaten. Goku retaliated appropriately: a super saiyan sized Angry Kamehameha that completely engulfed the last ditch attack and consumed the body of the self proclaimed Emperor.

And that was that. The fight was over, but Frieza had ultimately won. King Kai relayed to the presently deceased Z-Fighters that Planet Namek had but mere seconds left and the capital ship was too damaged to provide any form of escape. Sure enough, moments later, the planet exploded violently enough to illuminate that entire reach of space like a newborn star.

Yamcha reached out to Bulma through King Kai's telepathy and revealed the bad news: Goku and Vegeta were both dead, caught in the final explosion. As expected, everyone grieved, even in small measure for the fallen prince for he had died fighting beside Goku and that anointed respect. Though they all knew that they could use the Namekian Dragon Balls now connected to Moori to revive the two saiyans, the news was no less hard to take.

It was in this way that the fight for Namek came to a close and King Kai closed off all telepathic contact, too upset over the death of his star apprentice to converse with the other guardians of the galaxy or Kami. Due to this, he unwittingly missed three very distinct ki signatures that would soon shape the near future, one in the wreckage of Namek and the other two speeding away into space.

But that was a story for another time.


	2. Maybe next time, or the time after that

_**AN:**__ Well, here we are again. This was intended as a one-shot, just supposed to be a little "ooh" story meant to stir up possibilities. But for some reason I just can't seem to leave well enough alone and I wrote another chapter, and then another. So, I suppose the story can continue the only way it can: with a cyborg-space-dictator._

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Frieza eyed the barren, rocky expanse of ground they had landed on, a steep cliff offering a wall on one side and pillars of stone spotting the landscape to the east. It was a dull environment, though admittedly a great deal better than Namek. On their approach vector, he had seen vast oceans and sprawling grasslands, beautiful features that usually prompted a high re-sell value on the World Market. However, Frieza had no intentions of leaving enough of this planet to sell for gardening mulch.

Thanks to the saiyan that called this diminutive planet home, he was now half machine, sporting monstrous metal appendages to replace his lost legs, tail and arm in addition to the augmentations grafted onto his face and chest. He was an abomination of science, never mind the sizable increase in power he had acquired, and that was going to cost the saiyan everything he held dear.

"Well," Frieza's father, King Cold, began with that ever-present sarcastic air, "here we are on Earth, the opposite end of civilized space. Where is this so called 'Super Saiyan'? From what you've said, he should have been able to detect us coming and have come to meet us."

"It wasn't just the one, Father, I've told you this. It was a saiyan named Goku along with Vegeta that tried to kill me." His towering father hummed and, in an elderly moment, tried to bring his glass of wine to his lips, only to remember that he had left it on the ship. Going on seventeen hundred years, Kold was getting along in years though still at his fullest maturity in terms of strength, leaving no doubt that neither Frieza nor Cooler could seize the throne from him for the next few centuries.

"I rather liked young Vegeta; always so quick to anger and absolutely ruthless. Shame we can no longer use him."

"After what he did to me, his death is assured!" Frieza growled, clenching both fists tightly enough to force oil from the mechanical elements to ooze out like blood. "Captain Clearahe, take your men and fan out. Look for Earthlings and kill them at will. Try to draw the attention of the one named Goku and lure him back here. Vegeta will doubtlessly follow." He smirked to himself. "Monkey see, monkey do."

Captain Clearahe, a tall humanoid with purple skin and scaly yellow patches on his chest and forearms, saluted his lord and master before rallying his direct subordinates and blasting off into the clear blue sky. Frieza had already moved on to different matters and was no longer paying attention to their retreating forms. As such, he completely missed the flashes of light that heralded the severed pieces Clearahe's team falling back to earth.

Turning, he regarded the new arrival whom had just landed a little ways off. The purple haired youth replaced his longsword in its horizontally positioned sheathe strapped across his back with an audible click. He looked like a human, but the only human Frieza had ever seen was barely four feet tall, so it was still open for debate.

"Well, who is this?" The arcosian inquired playfully, not at all perturbed by the loss of his men. This new one might be fun to kill before they went and killed everyone else on the planet.

He never saw it coming.

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Two hours was a very long time to wait in the middle of a sandy field in near silence with a full group of martial artists, a scientifically genius though almost manically annoying woman, and a complete stranger who had killed two frost demons single handedly and then supplied soda.

Tuesday's man.

"Time's up. Goku and Vegeta should be landing any moment now," the mysterious saiyan spoke up, straightening from his half leaning position against a rock and began looking up into the sky. The others followed suit, wondering if they could actually trust what this man had claimed about the arrival of their two missing saiyans.

Several minutes of doing exactly the same thing as they had been the past few hours later, two specks in the sunny sky became visible just moments before they crossed the distance and crashed into the ground side by side, a large crater forming around the landing spots.

Everyone crowded around the lip of the crater to look down at the two easily recognizable space pods, triangular emblems emblazoned on the hatches that were now slowly swinging open. Twin curtains of thick white gas seeped out from the opened portals, creating a dramatic environment for the two figures that were casually pulling themselves from their respective pods.

"Daddy!" The cry came from Gohan upon seeing his father, alive and well. The Earth raised saiyan looked up at them and laughed joyfully, glad to finally be back home. His traveling companion, Vegeta, didn't say a word, merely stretching his neck and arms with a strangely neutral expression on his face. This caught the attention of the mysterious youth, as well as the tall namekian who had remained silent thus far.

"Heya guys!" Goku floated up out of the hole to better greet his friends, Vegeta following suit. They both wore strange garments that appeared to be made out of silk, or perhaps a very high grade of cloth. Ceremonial looking vests sporting a single pauldron brought forth memories of the PTO armor, though these were of a more elegant design. Vegeta still bore the scar inflicted on him by Frieza, but it really only managed to make him look even more ruggedly handsome and dangerous.

"Man, I can't tell you how good it is to see all of you again. But," and here he acknowledged the unfamiliar presence, turning to face the lavender haired man, "how did you all know where we'd land?"

"He told us," Krillin helpfully supplied. "Right after he beat Frieza like he was nothing."

Both saiyans looked startled at this information, now looking at the new comer with intrigue.

"You did that? Wow, I guess I should thank you." Goku grinned childishly while rubbing the back of his head. Vegeta crossed his arms with a deep scowl. "We would have stepped in, but when we felt your energy, we knew that you could handle it."

"How could the two of you have intervened from way out in space?" The mysterious man inquired, baffled by this revelation. Once again, Goku spoke up with the prince remaining silent, a drastic change of character that had Piccolo wondering just what had happened on their exodus in space.

"By way of a nifty new technique we picked up on Planet Yardrat. It allows a person to travel great distances instantly."

"You mean time travel?!" the anonymous man took a step forward, a look of shock on his face. This garnered a few curious looks.

"Nope. See, you dematerialize and travel as a beam of light to-"

"Kakarot, why do you always forget how it works?" Vegeta at last spoke up, annoyed at the other saiyan's forgetfulness. Goku shrugged.

"It's hard keeping track of all the little details. I prefer just using it than explaining it."

"Hmph!" Vegeta huffed, rolling his eyes. "Regardless of this clown's poor instructions, it's called 'Instant Transmission', and it does just that." To prove this, he placed two fingers to his forehead, located the strongest power signature on the planet besides those gayhered around him, and vanished with a electric crackle. A mere moment later, he reappeared in exactly the same spot, except now he was holding in his free hand a very surprised looking Master Roshi.

"But-but-but Kame Island is halfway across the planet!" Yamcha exclaimed, reeling at this display. Vegeta grunted and dropped the martial arts teacher to his feet where he tottered dangerously, unsure of what exactly had just happened.

"So long as we can sense a power signature, we can Transmit to it. That's the only drawback," Vegeta detailed, rubbing his hands together, thoroughly missing his customary gloves.

"That sounds pretty helpful. But back to the matter at hand, I came here to discuss something of grave importance with Goku," the purple headed swordsman announced, standing anxiously a few feet away from the group.

"Just me? Anything you want to say to me you can say to all of them," Goku chimed, indicatiting the tight-knit group of friends…and Vegeta.

"Yeah, what gives?" Yamcha, aggravated, took a step forward. "You drag us all here for two hours and then won't tell us why? You still haven't even told us your name yet!" The scar faced baseball star had apparently forgotten that the youth he was addressing had quite simply slaughtered two-thirds of the Cold Dynasty.

"Please, it' imperative that I don't tell you anything as it might have dire ramifications."

"You're from the future."

What Piccolo said was not a question, merely simple fact. They all looked at the tall namekian in shock before staring at the young man with new eyes. Everyone knew that Piccolo was not one for flighty fantasies, and anything he said had very good odds of being the truth.

"That would explain a few things," Bulma said almost to herself. "He knew exactly where Goku and Vegeta were going to land." Gohan adopted her train of thought easily.

"Not to mention he knew of my dad without ever having met him. Nobody but us knew that he was even off planet."

Finding himself at the mercy of the keen minds of the past incarnation of his mother and mentor, Trunks felt a blush creep into his cheeks, feeling like a little kid all over again.

"Well, that's pretty cool!" Krillin exclaimed, having finished assuring Roshi that he hadn't died abruptly and been transported to some kind of afterlife.

"If he has something to say to us about the future, then we should probably pay attention," Tien observed, Chiatzou nodding in agreement beside him.

"I guess that cat's out of the bag," Trunks shrugged, disappointed that his careful deception had been obliterated in seconds, most probably by the slip of tongue that he had about time travel. "Yes, I am from the future, and it's a grim place. A pair of Androids were created by Dr. Gero, of the former Red Ribbon Army, and have wreaked havoc on the planet for close to twenty years. Countless thousands are killed each day and the populace is steeped in terror that tomorrow might not come."

His face grew dark as he recounted the facts, feeling that it was a nightmare that would never end, even here in this relatively peaceful version of the same planet in the past. He had been raised amongst death, and that would forever shape him into a realist. He knew exactly what waited for him upon return.

"But how did you travel back in time?" Bulma spoke up.

"You and your father managed to create a time machine over the course of ten years in which Gohan and I were the only ones able to fend off the Androids long enough for civilians to escape." Both Bulma and Gohan looked slightly relieved at hearing of their own survival, but Goku had a look of consternation on his strong features.

"These Androids," he began, "why didn't we beat them?"

"You tried to. But almost every single one of you were ruthlessly murdered by the pair of them; hopelessly outmatched. Not even you, Vegeta, could stand before them; Gero had made them even stronger than a super saiyan and you were no match." Vegeta huffed and looked to the side in resentment.

"What about me? Didn't I get to fight the androids too?" Goku, as obsessed with fighting as ever, inquired.

"No, you never got the chance. Shortly before they were activated, you came down with a fatal heart virus and passed away in your bed."

Everyone looked ill at ease, having heard their deaths foretold to them as certainly as the weather report. Goku looked put off.

"Bummer. They sounded pretty strong and I would have loved to fight against them at least once."

"But, aren't you scared about being killed by them?" Trunks asked, shocked by the openness of the desire. Goku rubbed the back of his head for a second in thought.

"Well, I guess I am scared a bit, but that's no different from when I faced Frieza on Namek. If you don't carry fear with you into battle then you are your own worst enemy."

Trunks grinned. Goku had met his mother's descriptions perfectly and he knew that the fate of the world would be safe in his hands. Pulling a small vial from his jacket pocket he tossed it to the saiyan.

"Here you go. In this time, there isn't an antidote for the virus, but in the future Bulma was able to synthesize one from your blood after you died."

"Oh cool! It's purple so it might be grape flavored. Thanks! But I still don't know your name and I kind of feel crummy that I can't call you it."

"I'm sorry but telling you that might change history so that I am never born, or am a different person entirely."

Vegeta laughed raucously at this, startling all of them out of their near silence.

"Boy, if we could change the future by the events that we did from here on out, you would have ceased to exist a dozen times over by now. Whatever you have to say, it couldn't possibly be any more potentially damning than being the one to finish off Frieza, or saving Kakarot. You have made our two times separate in the stream of reality. Good job." Though his last few words were mocking, Vegeta spoke the truth and everyone, especially Trunks, knew it.

"Well, I'm not sure that I should because my identity could possibly prevent one or two of you from what fate you were supposed to have," Trunks supplied, admittedly and understandably desperate. Mercifully, Vegeta seemed to grow annoyed with this stalling and turned his back on the man. Consequently this caused him to directly face Bulma who had been, almost subconsciously, checking the Prince out. The two caught each other in a confused staring match that lasted perhaps a few seconds too long before Bulma coughed and Vegeta turned away once more, scowling even deeper to cover the faintest hints of red in his cheeks.

Spying this, Trunks withheld a relieved grin. If the chemistry between them grew as it had in his time line then he would at least be born…again. But not in the religious sense. Actually, maybe this could be considered a spiritual discovery.

"Regardless, thanks for the heads up," Krillin spoke up, breaking Trunks from his accidental introspection like a popping balloon. "Can you give us any other specifics?"

"Yeah," Trunks withdrew the piece of paper that his mother had written for him as reference. "Here is the exact date and the location where they'll appear."

Everyone huddled together to read the small index card, memorizing the information inscribed upon it to the letter. Bulma took note that it was written in her handwriting.

"What is that city's name, exactly?" Tien inquired to the group at large, receiving only shrugs in response.

"I guess we'll have to start training right away if we want to stand a chance of facing those androids," Gohan surmised. The expected retort from Vegeta about their uselessness never came.

"I wish all of you the best of luck in your training." Trunks took a few steps backward to create a safe area with which he could fly away. "I need to return to my own time now and make sure my mother remains safe. I'll see you again in three years to help out the best I can. Good-bye!"

And with that, he departed, blasting off into the bright blue sky with a clear aura trail marking his passage. They watched him shrink until completely vanishing from sight.

"Man, what a secretive guy," Yamcha remarked.

"Not to mention mysterious," Gohan concurred. "To think, he was a Super Saiyan and he didn't even want to fight you Dad, or you Vegeta."

There was a pause, filled by the sound of gentle wind and birds of the craggy land.

"WHAT!?"

"WHAT!?"

_** AN: **__Aaaand scene! So now that's been established as somewhat of a plot hole for our heroes. Will their preparation for the arrival of the androids be any different than it was in canon? Will the androids themselves be altered by this AU? Find out waaaaaayy later on in "What's in a moment?"_

_ If you noticed that the characters seemed to be pretty much how they were in canon, then you would be correct. Not enough time has passed for anyone to begin changing drastically, though there are a few small ones. _

_Just like in perhaps my favorite fanfic of all time, "Break Through the Limit", Vegeta doesn't yet have a clear picture of either what he should change towards or even why he should change. We'll just have to tag along for his spiritual journey and see where it takes us. Hopefully no place where Nappa is Vegeta's spirit animal. Then again…_


	3. Cold shoulder and a Cold Reception

_**AN:**_ _Third chapter of "What's in a moment?" in which we learn some more things about this altered Vegeta and Goku. Obviously, there won't be any huge changes just yet, but as the story progresses, you'll see as the consequences of Vegeta surviving slowly become larger and larger until it is no longer the Dragon Ball Z you know any longer. Think 'Bills and Broly fuse' kind of consequences, though not nearly that reliant on Goku receiving energy from several others to beat a big bad foe._

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It was eerily symbolic how they trained; Gohan and Piccolo would spar together on the ground or just above it while Goku and Vegeta crashed against each other time and time again far above, nearly invisible save for visible shockwaves and differently colored beams of ki energy being loosed. It almost declared that the saiyans were on another level entirely from the rest of the Z-Fighters.

Despite the overly powered aliens on their side, none of the others had slacked off from training. Indeed, they had thrown themselves whole-heartedly into the task at hand, all too clearly remembering the words of the time-traveling youth, that the androids would far surpass even a super saiyan. To that end, the humans and namekian had recognized that the coming conflict would need all of their contributions if they didn't want to perish like their future counterparts.

Nimbly dodging away from a heavy punch, Gohan flipped backward to gain a little space between himself and his mentor. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Piccolo sent the same arm shooting out as the rubbery sinews that made up his arm elongated and grabbed the boy by the leg. Squawking in surprise at the oft forgotten tactic, Gohan managed to put his hands out in front of him before he was slammed harshly into the rocky ground, unleashing a formless blast of golden energy that propelled him back up.

Realizing what his protégé was about to do, Piccolo released the half saiyan and jumped straight into the air as high as he could go, narrowly dodging the cumulative explosions of countless ki bullets homing in on his previous location. Discerning Gohan's ki signature, Piccolo took flight and sped towards him and delivered a kick to the gut. However, the visage of the boy fizzled away to reveal it as only an afterimage.

Taken aback, he didn't avoid the Masenko that collided with his back and launched him towards the horizon. Before he could go too far, he spun around and grabbed the golden beam with one hand to stop its course and punch it with the other, sending it skyward to harmlessly detonate. That was when Gohan struck, using his previous attack as a smokescreen, he came hurtling towards the turban wearing namekian at an arched angle, intent on delivering a powerful punch to the green face.

The impact never came as, with twin roars from on high, a force of wind that could scare away a typhoon crashed against them. Nearly being thrown through the air like a toy, Piccolo brought a greater degree of his power to bear and anchored himself in the air. Impressively, Gohan had managed to do the same, arms crossed in front of his face to try and ward of the gale.

The namekian didn't even need to look up to see what the commotion was about. With his senses alone, Piccolo was nearly driven unconscious by the feeling of two super saiyans in such close proximity. They had apparently decided to check how they measured up against each other at their fullest might and had proceeded to have a race of sorts, determining who could power up the fastest.

"Hey!" The less than jolly green man called up to the golden warriors, catching their attention. "How about a little warning before you pull a stunt like that again?"

Goku chuckled meekly, rubbing the back of his head in usual manner. Vegeta simply grunted and rotated his shoulder a few times until satisfied. They simultaneously dropped their transformations, an eerie tick they had. Piccolo had also noticed a distinct decline in performance when they were separated. From what he had surmised, they had plenty of time to spare on Yardrat and had sparred often, to the point of adapting their fighting styles to accommodate the other's.

Goku was as usual decked out in the customary Turtle School gi, complete with weighted clothing and King Kai's kanji on the back emblem. Vegeta more or less wore the same body suit that he usually wore, with his white gloves and yellow tipped boots also present. Foregoing the armor, he now depended only on his own strength to protect him from glancing or blunt blows.

"Sorry about that. We weren't really thinking, But hey, Gohan, I noticed that your power is ginormous! Great job buddy." Goku ruffled his son's hair, eliciting a giggle of happiness. Piccolo wondered how those hadn't been beaten out of him during their year long training in preparations for the saiyan's arrival awhile back.

"Namek." Vegeta's use of Piccolo's now demolished home world as a name was peeving, but tolerable. "I couldn't help but notice that you prefer to use your left side when on the defense. Stupid really. Any half-wit could see that that is your more developed side and decided to attack from the other way." Piccolo saw through the harsh words and tone and recognized advice when he saw it. Vegeta wasn't yet used to having allies that depended on him and vice versa, so his team building exercises needed a little polish.

"It's getting pretty late," Goku noted, ignoring Vegeta's rudeness and looking towards the sun sitting on the horizon line. "Chi-Chi should have dinner ready."

"It better not be fish again," Piccolo muttered darkly to himself.

"Wanna come over tonight Vegeta?" Goku inquired, his usual cheerful self.

"No. Mrs. Briefs said that she'd make dinner for me again," Vegeta responded shortly, wiping sweat away from his eyes and scar. This had been his answer every time Goku had asked, as though he expected that situation to change at any second. Nobody had ever actually 'invited' him anywhere before. He usually just blew the wall down and marched in.

"Well alright. Gohan, Piccolo." Their names were instruction enough and they placed their hands on his shoulders. "See ya tomorrow then Vegeta." And then he was gone with a 'whissh' of Instant Transmission. Deciding against using the same technique, the prince began the flight back, needing the time to think.

Ever since the mysterious youth had appeared nearly a year ago, everything about Vegeta's life had seemed to drag into slow motion. Every day felt like the last and everything he did was now familiar enough for him to call it habit. Daily routines ruled his life, and they were strange ones indeed: wake up, eat a saiyan sized breakfast, train in the newly minted Gravity Chamber Dr. Briefs and Bulma had created, shower, eat lunch, train some more, shower again, train with Goku until sundown, come back to CC, eat, shower one more time and then sleep. Rinse and repeat.

At any time before Namek, this would either have been considered adequate or not extreme enough, but now it seemed almost…dull. Like one of the basic stews Nappa (the only saiyan with any degree of culinary instincts) used to make on missions. Usually consisting of just water and meat from some prey he had caught, he would on occasion find native herbs and seasonings that made the flavor pop excitably. Neither Raditz nor Vegeta had ever complimented him, and this made the prince feel a slightly hollow.

These thoughts and memories were still swimming through his head when he landed in front of the Briefs family home and strode right on in. As expected, the matriarch of the household had already crafted a veritable banquet for his supper that night. Digging in with his customary gusto, Vegeta observed the family as they ate, having acclimated to his incessant gorging. They talked, laughed, debated, smiled and frowned. It was all part of the family package that he had never experienced, and if he had been focused solely on surpassing his rival then he would have missed this display.

Finishing faster than usual, he stacked the plates on top of each other and stood up from the table. Pausing there, he felt the urge to clear his throat loudly. When he had done just that, the Briefs were eyeing him curiously and without any actual fear. Feeling slightly flummoxed, he shifted his weight onto his other foot before speaking.

"The food was…good." And then he was gone, walking away with customary pride and poise but feeling like a fool. Unseen by the royal, the Briefs were watching him go with shocked faces. He had never, to their knowledge, complimented anybody on anything at anytime anywhere. Bunny Briefs tittered happily as she rose to collect the empty plates and Dr. Briefs nodded amicably as he puffed on his cigarette and pulled open a nearby newspaper.

But it was Bulma that was affected the most. Unknown to the prince, she had been helping her mother cook his afternoon meals for weeks and to actually hear him compliment her work was, well, thrilling. Smiling but trying to keep it a small one, she felt heat rise to her face and that long disguised kernel of attraction towards the saiyan resurfaced at this, the slightest of encouragements.

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Damp from his shower, Vegeta dressed quickly in the black T-shirt and gym shorts that had been provided for his pajamas so as to avoid another incident of him walking around in the buff. Sitting on the corner of his bed, he gazed into the closet of clothes that he probably would never wear yet had been provided anyway. The hospitality they had been showing him was almost unsettling. Anywhere else in the galaxy and it might have meant that they were trying to lull him into feeling safe before striking.

Humans were far more complex than he had initially thought. Landing on this planet with his life long ally and caretaker, he had thought them no more than incompetent insects that were only good for getting squashed beneath the heels of greater beings such as himself. Admittedly, he still thought this about most of the populace to a lesser degree, but there were those that had surprised him.

The Briefs, for one, with their unbelievably fast mastery of improving on technology years ahead of them and the hospitality they showed a former threat. The human members of the Z-Fighters were also impressive, some even stronger than he had been upon first arriving on Earth, though he would never admit it. Goku's wife, the klaxon named Chi-Chi, also had her merits, being capable of housing, feeding and corralling two saiyans by herself for years.

Extending on his metaphor from earlier that night, Vegeta realized that perhaps the saiyans as he had known them were the plain soup, and humans with all of their imperfections and bizarre quirks were the seasoning. His race had nearly died out despite being powerful and in contact with higher levels of technology. Humans lived on. Were they that worth defending by some of the strongest mortals in all of space?

Deciding that he had done enough introspection for that night and the next, Vegeta headed out of his room in search of a snack, suddenly peckish. The kitchen refrigerator yielded a jar of pickles witch he ate and then drank the juice from. It wasn't nearly as sour as some of the plants he had been forced to survive on in the past, but it was a close thing.

Striding out of the kitchen with a mega-stuffed and ramshackle ham and turkey sandwich in his hands, the Prince noted voices coming from the living room. Curious despite himself, he peeked inside and saw that Bulma, illuminated only by the light of the TV, was watching a movie on the couch, large bowl of popcorn in her lap. Once again unable to resist, he observed that her nightwear consisted of a pink top that may have been smaller than what would have been considered 'proper' and yellow shorts that were eye catchingly short on her legs. A pair of childish dinosaur slippers had been kicked of at the foot of the couch.

Catching himself staring at her, Vegeta turned to leave but found that he was listening to the movie as two men argued angrily (his body didn't seem to want to cooperate that night). Standing in the hall for a few minutes, he eventually returned to the open doorway to watch the movie, or more accurately, her. This carried on for a while until he decided that he would not just stand here with a warming up sandwich in his hands like a sneak. A hungry sneak.

He cleared his throat again.

"You don't need to ask," Bulma spoke up without taking her eyes off of the screen. Startled, he moved a little farther into the room.

"You knew that I was there." He formed it as a statement.

"I have peripheral vision too buddy," she clarified, eating a handful of popcorn.

Deciding that it wouldn't pain him too badly to stay and watch for a few minutes while he ate his sandwich, Vegeta stood as the opposite end of the couch from Bulma and silently watched the film. He had no idea what the plot was, but it proved to be far less exciting than he had initially thought. No one died explosively for one thing.

"Okay, I've got to ask;" Bulma at last turned her head away from the TV screen to properly appraise the prince. "From what everyone said about you, I expected you to be a real chatterbox, always claiming superiority over others and how you were the prince of all saiyans blah blah blah. Yet when you and Goku land on Earth you barely say five words unless asked directly. What gives?"

Vegeta scowled at the way she dismissed his heritage but kept his anger in check.

"As you know, Kakarot and I escaped Namek in the Ginyu Force's attack pods. Kakarot managed to get Captain Ginyu's pod and it had a permanent communication link with all other pods. For the entire trip to Yardrat and then to Earth that clown just would not shut up. He talked about almost every single event that happened to him while he was first looking for the Dragon Balls and then his fight with King Piccolo and then about his son. What's more, the Ginyus had depleted the tranquilizing gas on their trip to Namek so I couldn't just sleep through his ramblings. Over those very long weeks, I developed an affinity for silence and found that I was loathe to break it."

"So Goku pretty much talked you into shutting up?" His disdainful grunt was her answer. "Ha! Gotta admit that that's a new one for the guy." She chortled to herself, returning to the movie while the prince vehemently took a bite from his sandwich as though it had insulted him as she had just done.

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Cooler arrived with absolutely no fanfare whatsoever. His single ship slipped onto the planet smoothly and the Armored Squadron was dispatched to locate the saiyan that had bested his brother on Namek. Indulging in the wine that he had received from Barculian merchants hoping to cut a deal (they had been killed, naturally, though not before he had thanked them for the wine), the slender arcosian studied the planet they had landed on. It had a back-woodsey charm to it, perhaps good for a vactation spot for those that saw such worlds as 'quaint'.

His reverie was broken as the communications hub in the nearest console bleeped, alerting him that one of his Squad was contacting him via scouter. He no longer wore one due to his budding energy sensing abilities, but the same could not be said for his underlings.

"Report," he commanded as he pressed a button with a slim finger, sipping again from his fluted wineglass.

"Lerd Coolah! E ave fond ze umans zat were own Nameak as well as ze saiyan zat we wear looking for!" Salza's thickly accented voice came over the air waves.

"Excellent, you may engage but do not kill the monkey until I get there." He turned the device off and drained the rest of his drink. Looking thoughtfully at the crystal, he placed it gently on a side table before departing. No use breaking it when he planned on a celebratory toast afterwards to commemorate his inheriting his father's mantle as supreme lord of the galaxy.

So many people to kill, so much time to do it in.

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"Well this is most unfortunate," Cooler remarked, unsure whether he felt anger or disappointment at arriving only to find all three of his men dead by beam attacks. Well, Niez looked like he had been cooked, but that was irrelevant. Even Salza, who dwarfed Captain Ginyu in strength had been slain. The perpetrator was a tall Namekian, now standing stoically several meters away with arms crossed. "Do you have any idea how bothersome it is to recruit henchmen as strong as they were from the pathetic masses?"

"If that's all you're worried about then I did them a favor," the namekian remarked coolly. Behind him stood the midget human and a pig wearing a button up shirt and overalls. The saiyan and his son were nowhere to be seen, but he could just barely sense them no more than a mile away. The saiyan seemed to feel weak.

"I take that they teamed up against the saiyan named Goku?"

"Yes. He was trying to protect his son, so they managed to injure him." Cooler hummed to himself. The namekian actually had done them a favor by killing them quickly if they had so readily abandoned his orders. Bills only knew what he would have done to them if he had been the one to dole out their punishments.

"I guess I'll just have to find contentment in slaughtering an infirm monkey. Should be easy considering I've done so numerous times in the past." The namekian shifted into a fighting stance.

"You'll have to get through me if you want to face Goku."

"Oh I was so hoping that you would say that."

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Vegeta landed like a meteorite, crashing into the ground and creating a shallow crater. He knew that time was most definitely not on their side by the way Piccolo's power had just plummeted, reminding him far too much of Namek. Having encountered Gohan on his way towards the battlefield, he knew that the situation was dire with Goku incapacitated.

Springing out of his crouch, he bounded across the pitted landscape and towards Cooler, who was holding aloft a semi-conscious Piccolo by the throat. Snarling, the prince jumped forward and missile kicked his way onto the scene. Surprised, Cooler dropped the namekian and staggered back several steps, holding a hand to his cheek, more annoyed than injured.

"Vegeta! I had heard you had survived as well but thought you would have ditched this planet long ago." A sly smile crept onto his purple face as he regained his cool (point to me!). "Maybe challenge me for lordship over the galaxy?"

"Pah! Hardly. Only a fool would think that he could actually own the stars. If you hadn't noticed, not even the kais can exactly maintain their dominions."

"Oh don't tell me that you're a religious monkey on top of everything else," Cooler guffawed. While that was enough to piss off Vegeta, he didn't immediately lash out, instead opting to wait for a prime opening. He could sense Cooler's power and it was pitiable compared the full might of Frieza, let alone a super saiyan. The only way he could get a work out in would be for him to remain in base form.

"Well, considering I did actually talk to one on Namek might suggest that they are a little more than just the superstitions of space pirates and smugglers."

"I second that," came the slightly fuzzy voice of King Kai through their minds. Apparently the lazy 'god' had actually been paying attention for once and had followed the events of Cooler's attack.

"W-what kind of trick is this?" Cooler jerked his head about, trying to find the source of the voice. He hated telekinetics, but he absolutely loathed telepaths due to a slight mishap when his father had enlisted a Trididian mind bender to tutor his sons in the art of mental warfare.

"I grow sick of your pettiness," Vegeta growled, not pleased himself with King Kai's sudden interruption and anxious to get on with the fight. He sank into his refined fighting stance, the one that held trace amounts of Kakarot's school as well as a touch of arcosian as well.

"So be it Vegeta!" Cooler shouted, still rattled by the intrusion into his mind. Without even going into his starting stance first, the last of the Cold Dynasty rocketed forward, propelling a limp Piccolo away in his wake. His fist slammed home into the saiyan's raised fore arm, sending up a shock of vibration that ran down both of their bones. But Vegeta held his ground and attempted to swing his own fist into the ice demon's gut, dodged only at the last instant.

Ducking beneath a sweeping tail, he attempted to fire a ki blast from his palm, only for his hand and entire arm to be jerked painfully to the side, leaving him wide open to receive an open palmed blow to the chest. Rolling away, Vegeta jumped to his feet with his arms crossed, anticipating the next assault. Cooler had also anticipated this and had instead flown straight up until he was a good two dozen meters off of the ground before lifting an index finger above him and creating a Death Ball.

"Welcome to Oblivion!" He called as he launched it with all of his might toward the saiyan prince below. He didn't like cutting his enjoyment short, but he was suddenly aware of the energy signal he had guessed to be Goku's suddenly jumping back up to what it had been before the Armored Squadron had wounded him, possibly even a bit stronger.

Vegeta, for his part, merely frowned at the oncoming attack. Perhaps it would have been enough to utterly annihilate him a few months back, but that was before he had unlocked the power of the super saiyan and consequently raised the upper limits of his base form.

Bringing his hands in close y his side, he very quickly gathered the ki energy necessary for the attack before thrusting his hands out again.

"GALLICK GUN!"

The column of amethyst erupted into the sky to meet the black and red orb halfway, stopping it dead in its tracks and then just blasting it away completely, only just missing Cooler. Obviously, the arcosian didn't take kindly to having one of his strongest attacks being overpowered that easily by anyone, let alone one of the monkeys he and his brother had shared a common interest in belittling.

"Damn! Damn you! DAMN YOOOUUU! Do you think you can just mock me like that and get away with it?!"

"Yeah."

"This will put you in your place!" The easily enraged iceijin charged up two Death Balls this time, ready to erase the ground for at least several miles in either direction. No chances would be taken that day.

But, as he ever had a habit of doing, Goku arrived just as things looked darkest with a fizzle of Instant Transmission. Already grinning from the prospect of a fight, he didn't look as though he had been nearly catatonic just a few seconds ago save for the large scorch mark on the back of his gi, mostly destroying the Kai kanji.

"Oh come on Kakarot," Vegeta growled upon seeing his rival and fellow surviving saiyan. "I've been fighting him for all of five seconds and you already show up to take over? I will have none of that!"

Goku laughed heartily, scratching the back of his head like usual. Cooler was frozen (yet another point to me!) above. **THIS** was the Super Saiyan of Legend? Frieza must have been very sloppy to have lost to such a man.

"Well, I suppose you can fight him for awhile and then we can switch," Goku tried, attempting diplomacy. Vegeta quickly put a stop to that.

"No! He's mine. I barely fought Frieza so it's my turn by right."

"But he's the only real challenge we've had since then and I was hoping to test out my new power," Goku complained right back.

"Ditto, and since I'm the only prince around here, I believe that grants me some special privileges every now and then, wouldn't you say?"

Goku frowned, realizing that there was only one true way to settle the decision without bloodshed.

"Rock-paper-scissors!" he declared, thrusting his fist out between them. Vegeta seemed to fizzle with anger for a few seconds before relenting and extending his own fist. With lighting speed, they threw out their ammunition but found it an immediate draw with two rocks. The next match saw the same results. As did the next several that followed.

By then of course, Cooler was livid with indignation at being so blatantly ignored. He would show these imbeciles exactly why he deserved the fear and respect he had acquired for over five centuries.

The two Death Balls melted away and were replaced by an enormous sphere of gurgling orange energy, ready to detonate and wipe away all traces of planet Earth.

"Guess what saiyans:" he called down to them, interrupting yet another tie, "Supernova beats everything!"

And with that he threw the colossal attack down at them, beyond confidant that this was the end, now matter how short the engagement had been. He needed only halt this ridiculous story of a super saiyan and then he could leave, probably even making it back to his ship in time to take off and have his toast as the planet detonated behind him.

It was then that he heard the sound of thunder despite the clear skies. Whatever was causing the disturbance eluded him and he deigned to utilize his energy sensing to see if he could narrow down possibilities. What he sensed was two super saiyans now effortlessly hoisting his Supernova above their heads chucking it into the sky where it would drift off into space before harmlessly giving out.

"Oh," Cooler murmured, now realizing that, perhaps, there was something to this legend after all.

"Very rude, interrupting us like that," Vegeta coldly remarked (zing!), crossing his arms over his chest.

"Even I'm annoyed now," Goku agreed, rolling his shoulders to warm himself up for the now inevitable fight.

Cooler, ever a pragmatist, decided that now would be a good time to unleash his own transformation, ascending into the 5th form of his race.

"You haven't seen anything yet!" He declared before hunching forward as he forced all of hi latent strength to the surface of his being. In response to the massive shift in energy, his body underwent a metamorhis. Growing taller by several feet, he now boasted more bone armor on his face, arms and chest. His head had sprouted a four horned crest that pointed in different directions. As he came to grasps with the incredible boost he always received when he transformed, a bone face plate slid in to place over his mouth, casting his face into darkness and leaving only his glowing red eyes visible.

"Now, I will crush you. Not even two super saiyans could possibly hope to beat me now!" He laughed triumphantly to prove his confidence. Goku and Vegeta merely shared a look and a shrug before simultaneously launching themselves toward the arcosian.

The beating and many explosions that followed don't even bare repeating, but it would be very safe to say that Cooler would most definitely never be having that toast anytime soon.

_**AN:**__ Cold Family related pun score: 3!_

'_Bringer of Death' references: at least higher than 1_

_Thus ends chapter 3 and the Cold Dynasty, 'cuz you know that Cooler's not getting back up from that one. Not sure when the next chapter will be out, so keep an eye out for it in the near future._

_But as a bonus gift, I made a sneak preview into another series I'm going to be doing below. Here's one hint: it's a blending of a TV show I like with a recent movie trilogy that I really like._

_Enjoy!_

TDPR TDPR TDPR

Legends are not born and they are not created.

They emerge from the shadows.

The figure knew this full well as he slowly walked towards the large, wooden cabinet at the back end of the cave. He was needed in the city, and the masked persona of the dark hero would respond. Such was the chosen path of the extravagantly rich playboy.

With his old mentor preparing to mercilessly slaughter countless millions in order to fulfill his own demented dream of a 'perfect order' and the hordes of criminals loosed from the correctional facility, his defining moment was at hand. He would have to rise to the challenge, beyond what any single man should ever be capable of and become the dark guardian of his home and those he had vowed to protect.

Gripping the handles of the cabinet, he heaved the double doors open to reveal his armored costume ready and waiting for him, gadgets and non-lethal weapons arranged neatly on the walls next to it. Shedding his wrecked suit, he donned the comfortingly tight uniform and placed the paraphernalia along his magnetized belt in their appointed order. Lastly came the mask, which he slipped on over his head and carefully arranged it around his eyes and mouth.

Now he was physically ready, but was he mentally? The answer to that had to be "yes"; for the good of all the innocents that might lose their lives if he couldn't stop the man that had trained him. Now was the time for him to become a beacon of hope, to become more than just a man. Now was the time for him to become a symbol, an elemental figure representing his enemies fear.

Now was the time for him to become a Legend.

Opening the hatch to his high-powered vehicle, he charted the fastest route to the area he knew would be targeted into the computer and took his position behind the steering stalk. As he headed out, he completed the final touch in becoming the masked guardian. The small cabin was momentarily flooded by golden light as his hair took on the usual golden hue of his super saiyan transformation until he consciously toned it down to bearable levels.

Now Vegeta was gone, left back in the cave. There was only…

The Super Saiyan.


	4. Danger, Son Gohan, Danger!

_**AN:**__ Yes, a DBZ/Batman story. It will be a thing. Eventually. Sometime in the future. Yep._

_ Well, I wanted to jump straight to the androids showing up like the show pretty much did, but three years is just too long not to have any exposition occur. Any other time, I would have force fed you any changes I made happen to the characters and then reveal the causes via flashbacks or conversation, but I don't think that'll work in this case._

_ Besides, there's a few more movies I wanted to conveniently alter the timeline of to show off the badass-ocity of Goku and Vegeta tag-teaming against the villain of. Liiiike this one._

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It started with Tien.

He and Chiatzou were training together in the upper slopes of the Qhini Mountains. Tien found that the higher altitude helped to increase the pay-off of his training and the clean air helped his mental clarity. They had found this place two years ago when they had been training for the arrival of the saiyans and had made it their customary stomping grounds.

Today had been just another day in the life of two martial artists. They trained, they ate and they trained some more, same as always. Tien had just gotten around to the third level of the _Juun-do_ kata of the water striking house and knee deep in snow, when a strange sensation tingled away at the point where his neck and skull connected. Stopping in his tracks, he looked around, wary of a potential attack.

But as he continued to remain undisturbed, he reached out with his senses, looking for that which not even his third eye could perceive, but again he found nothing. Now alarmed, he stopped Chiaotzou's training to ask the psychic if he could detect anything out of the ordinary. After a brief wait, he was for the third time faced with a lack of answers.

Unable to shake the feeling of foreboding but equally unable to explain why, the three eyed fighter resumed his training with increased fever, determined not to let any potential threat overwhelm him. It wouldn't be like with Nappa and Vegeta all over again. This he vowed.

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The next to feel the disturbance was King Kai.

Negligent as usual, he had failed to pick up on the strange feelings emanating from space. They were echoes of negative ki energy; the death of thousands, if not millions and leaving an empty void in the grand field of life, thus the opposite feeling of that which sustained all life. It was the record of darkness that all kais feared, regardless of station or rank.

It seemed that whatever had happened occurred awhile back, judging by the dullness of the ache. Perhaps on the other side of the cosmos. Rearranging his antennae towards where the sensation emanated, the portly kai searched silently for several long seconds in silence, Bubbles and Gregory watching on. At last, He discovered what had happened.

Sinking to his knees in shock, he gaped widely at nothing, unwilling to comprehend the magnitude of the event. All those people…

"King Kai, what is it?" Gregory's high-pitched voice broke the tension, and with it, King Kai's paralysis. Tears began to run down his cheeks from under his sunglasses and sobs racked his frame. Not since the time of Bojack the Unbound had he been so overwhelmed by emotion. His two assistants rushed forward to support him should he feint.

But the overseer of the northern quadrant wasn't blacking out anytime soon: he needed to notify the other kais if they hadn't noticed and then contact the saiyans on Earth; it seemed like something in their league. Anything that would massacre most of the Southern galaxy needed to be stopped by the two super saiyans. He could only hope that they were strong enough.

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Now everybody felt it. The Z-Fighters, even the ones King Kai hadn't directly contacted could feel the overbearing evil that was sweeping in from the farthest reaches of space. It sent shivers down the spines of the bravest and the coldest alike.

Even Vegeta was concerned. His sadistic acts of the past had at least been committed with a clear goal in mind, something to surpass. But this was simply madness, an insane act for the sheer pleasure of destruction alone. Secretly, it reminded him of the enigmatic figure that he had seen in his father's hall as a boy, using the king as a footrest. He had later learned the identity of that purple feline, but that was beside the point.

"So," the Prince spoke up, leaning against the wall of the Briefs' living room and addressing the assembled Z-Fighters gathered with him, "do we continue training her or do we go and see just what has that sniveling Kai all bothered about?"

"Shouldn't you be falling head over heels to challenge a 'worthy opponent' or something?" Yamcha shot back, still sore over having the saiyan apparently take his place in Bulma's life.

"Knock it off Yamcha, we're all on the same side," Piccolo interjected before the retort on Vegeta's lips could be spoken. "I understand that tensions are high right now, but we still need to keep our cool and analyze this situation calmly."

"Agreed." Krillin stood up from where he had been sitting on the couch by Gohan and Goku. "This could be an even bigger threat than the androids. Think about it; that guy from the future told us that they laid waste to Earth, but just Earth. Whatever this thing is, it's already blown up a quarter of the galaxy! That sounds like bad news if ever there was any."

"So we go find it?" Goku asked, looking amongst his friends for confirmation.

"Hey wait! Yamcha, ever the voice of extreme caution, waved his hands in front of him to get their attention. "Do any of us even stand a chance against something so strong? I doubt either Goku or Vegeta could put down something that destroys entire planets like their nothing, let alone us normal guys."

It was Gohan that answered him, eyes stern with focus.

"If we don't try, then who? As far as we know, the people standing in this room are some of the strongest anywhere. It's our responsibility to protect those that can't stand up to the powerful threats like Frieza, or the androids. That's why we are the good guys, right? Or should we just give in when it gets tough? I know my answer, and I'm sure I know all of yours as well."

A moment of silence followed the small speech, all eyes on the youngest member. His determination was hardly surprising considering his lineage, but to see the fire in his eyes was startling compared to his usual innocence.

"Yeah alright," Yamcha relented, hanging his head in dismay. He wouldn't have just run away, but the fear of dying a second time was very real to him. He wasn't some super version of anything, just a man who loved martial arts. He was also the second weakest among them; even Gohan had surpassed while him on Namek. There just didn't seem much reason for him to go other than to get in the way.

"We'll need Bulma to make a few more ships for us then," Goku started, "or maybe just a really big one this time."

"Can't you or Vegeta use that Instant Transmission technique to just take us there?" Tien inquired.

"Neither of us can sense that far. And we wouldn't know if we'd be appearing in the middle of space or not if we did," Goku explained while the prince merely 'harumphed' in agreement.

"So: back to space?" Krillin grimaced, remembering the trip to Namek a year before.

"To space," Gohan agreed.

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Bulma had been surprisingly willing to build them a new ship. In all likeliness it was to try and impress a certain alien prince of a near extinct race, but no one said anything. Within a month, she and her father had managed to tackle the problem head on and improve everything about the last two Capsule ships and just make it generally a lot bigger.

Resplendent with an enormous supply of food, both hydrated and not, fresh clothes for everyone, a water recycler, an oxygen scrubbers good for a century before needing to be replaced, gravity manipulation device in the main chamber, various weights along the walls, cutting edge communication and detection technology, beds for all, a bathroom and even a cappuccino maker at the behest of Dr. Briefs, it was all in all a capable ship for housing two and a half saiyans, a namekian and three humans (Chiaoutzou decided to remain behind, citing that somebody had to).

At the dawn of the day after its completion, Capsule 3 was waiting on an old launch pad for its passengers as the techies scrambling around made final preparations. At the loading ramp, Gohan was hugging his tearful mother farewell. It had taken no less than a god talking to her directly for Chi-Chi to let Gohan go with the rest, but she was still obviously worried. It hadn't been so long ago that he had narrowly survived the destruction of a planet because of a wish from the Dragon Balls, and that kind of a close call would rattle any mother.

By the main house, Vegeta was silently observing the proceedings, casting a critical eye over the mammoth ship. He had admired the technology before, but that didn't mean he was willing to just throw his life in the hands of scientists, regardless the color of their hair. It was that thought that brought him right back around to the subject he had been trying hard to ignore. Despite his best attempts to submerge himself in his training, with or without Kakarot, Bulma just seemed to pop into his mind at the slightest provocation.

He tried to dismiss it as simple carnal lust, an animal instinct to breed with an attractive female. But that didn't cover it at all; she poked fun at him, she teased him, she talked to him freely without any sign of fear or loathing, she could get him to talk about his past life with enough needling and he absolutely enjoyed just being around her. Her scent intoxicated the senses and the few times their hands had touched during meals caused his nerves to tingle pleasantly.

"Zeni for your thoughts?"

Startled from his thoughts, Vegeta almost flinched when he saw that it had been the object of his attention that had…caught his attention.

"…what?"

"You were standing her and your face was all bunched up and I just thought that you needed to talk to somebody. Worried about the trip?"

"No, I just…" he petered out before he could even invent a reason. Her scent had hit him again, that blend of vanilla and fabric softener.

Suddenly, he was hyper aware of everything about this human woman that stood before him: the smudge of grease on her cheek, the way she held the back of her wrist to her waist, the well-used blue overalls that she wore, the strands of hair that escaped the sloppy braid she had pulled it into.

"Vegeta?" She probed, feeling warmth rushing to her face under the stare of the prince.

Snapping out of his trance, the saiyan pushed past her without a word and headed toward the ship. Before he made it too far, Bulma ran ahead of him and gave him a stern look.

"Now look mister; I try to be nice to you and accommodate your horrible manners and ignore all the insults and keep you fed and fix up the Gravity Chamber when it's broken and patch you up when you push it too far, but sometimes, just sometimes, it would be nice if you didn't always act like such a spaz and just have a decent conversation with me for a change!

"I may not be one of your saiyan women, the ones that could snap iron bars across their knees, but I **am** a woman and it would be very unwise for you to make me mad. You could just as soon find yourself on the street or crashing at Master Roshi's!" She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at said hermit who was wishing Krillin good luck. "I don't have to put up with you, but I do and that should tell you a whole lot about me! I am willing to tolerate weirdness aplenty, but not being ignored! So," she jabbed him in the chest with a finger, "zeni for your goddamn thoughts?"

He grabbed her shoulders and pushed his lips against hers in an act of complete openness. Taken by surprise, she could only stare into his onyx eyes for a few seconds before her brain kicked in. Pushing herself away fro him, Vegeta released his hold on her and let her take a few steps back, the hunger that dwelt within him satiated for the moment now that it had gotten a taste.

"That...that wasn't…" she couldn't quite complete a thought in her befuddlement. She couldn't tell if she was outraged or relieved, so she settled on annoyed. "You can't just throw yourself on a girl! You need to sweep her off of her feet first." Vegeta said nothing. He just looked at her with a strangely neutral expression.

"We're launching in one minute!" Dr. Briefs called to everyone around from the ramp oblivious to what had just transpired. The activity picked up to a fever pitch, as everything was triple checked and luggage was stored.

"You need to get going," Bulma urged, but the saiyan didn't move; he just continued to stare at her with the unsettlingly look of someone angry at everything but what they were looking at. Unsure, she pushed him slightly to make sure that he hadn't just spaced out, but he backed away from her touch. "What?"

"I don't ever lose control of myself like that, and I…that is to say, it would…"

Bulma watched him struggle for a second before catching his drift.

"I won't tell if you don't," she promised. Vegeta swallowed hard, nodded, and then took off at a sprint to enter the ship before it closed. Left standing their, the blunette bit her lip in thought as the countdown was completed and the spherical rocket was propelled upward and through the atmosphere. Just what had driven Vegeta to act like that?

But she already knew why. It was the same reason she allowing him to stay with her for so long, why she always waited by his sick bed until he was well enough to demand that she fix the gravity chamber. The same reason she would be waiting for him to return to her.

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The voyage was just as time consuming as they had anticipated, perhaps even worse. For the first few weeks, they had all trained vigorously using the equipment and gravity manipulator to great extent. But soon enough, that had become maddeningly tedious and most of them tried to find other activities to while away the long hours. Vegeta alone attempted to continue to train, but using the gravity machine caused everyone else to complain quite loudly and that drove him to the brink before he conceded and stopped using it. Without the extra strain, he saw no point in training and pursued other options.

Oddly, the prince took a liking to the handheld gaming device Krillin had brought. The challenge of a computerized opponent against his own wits and reflexes excited him and he ended up playing the games more than Krillin actually did. The former monk compensated by digging out his collection of his favorite soap opera and watching them constantly. Everyone else shunned the show at first, but eventually Gohan came to watch, and then his father, followed by Tien and Yamcha. It soon came to pass that watching the show became a scheduled event and everyone had placed wagers on which pairing of the main characters they though would happen (with Piccolo being the only one to bet that it would be a sad ending and Vegeta insisting that two of the women had their own thing going on).

Goku, when not eating or rooting for Javier, attempted to master the cappuccino machine in the kitchen. The scalding hot coffee and application of cream was stumped him, but he persevered and kept making batch after batch with Krillin as his reluctant taste tester. The first several dozen were predictably barely consumable by humans, but at least they hadn't poisoned anyone yet. But, just as Goku was accustomed to doing, the plentiful experience rapidly began to improve his tests, if only by little bits at a time. Eventually though, he had memorized the entire procedure and could whip out a regular cup of cappuccino in scant seconds. With this victory, he set his eyes upon different recipes and went to work, a constantly buzzed Krillin watching as he went.

Yamcha, to everyone's surprise, had started to work on a book. When asked, he responded that every good baseball player eventually made a book that made them look a whole lot better than they actually were at some time or other. Appropriating one of the ships console for his typing purposes, he pecked away at the transcript day after day, fleshing out an interesting story. He couldn't accurately depict his early life since it involved being a bandit, fighting an invisible man, seven magical orbs and the second coming of King Piccolo, so he fudged his early life. Asking ideas from everybody, he eventually came up with him being distantly related to a now extinct line of royalty, he had an overbearing mother who had tried to pressure him into a life of Buddhism and that he found peace in meditating for long hours at a time.

Gohan, to nobody's surprise, read. Chi Chi must have raided half of the libraries around Mount Paozou to have packed so many books for her son, who didn't discount that possibility. They ranged from children's books to university textbooks for the monomolecular physical theorem. Dutifully, he dove into them and finished page after page at an extraordinary rate, though that coud probably have been expected. Surprisingly, Tien found himself engrossed in some of the books as well. Before he had been picked for the Crane School, he had used to enjoy reading at libraries before returning to the orphanage that he and Chioutzou had lived in for years. After the 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi, however, he just hadn't found much opportunity to find a thick chapter book and sit down with it for hours. Training had dominated his life since meeting Goku, but he guessed Vegeta had taken up that habit as well.

For a while, it seemed that Piccolo was the only one of them that had maintained his normal activities: meditating and being short with just about everyone. But one night, Goku had was going to the kitchen for another snack and perhaps some more cappuccino training when he noticed the namekian at the computer consoles, light from the monitor spilling over his form in the near dark of the 'night-cycle'. Taking a closer inspection, the saiyan had seen that half a dozen different videos had been pulled up on racecars. Indeed, fast automobiles had become a serious hobby of Piccolo's after their disastrous attempts to get their driving licenses a few months back. He followed racing circuits, street races and pro tours and kept statistics on some of the notable drivers.

And so it went on, their trek across the stars to reach the southern quadrant of the galaxy as had been laid out by kais of billions of years past. They even partly forgot their apprehension and fear of the coming battle should there be one…

But that changed on the forty seventh day when, all at the same time, the Z-Fighters felt the most terrible of presences blossom into existence not far from where they now were. It actually them made flinch and recoil from the shear force of the malevolence and insanity that perforated the ki energy like salt in the ocean.

But what really got their attention was the subtle distinguishing features of the ki, those that could allow them to determine identity if they already knew the person. This wasn't the case, but there were familiar elements that gave them a piece of insight into their future opponent.

"I don't believe it," Vegeta whispered, everyone still able to hear him, "it's a saiyan!"

**AN: **_There, a whole chapter and not a single punch is actually thrown. It's a lot more boring than other authors would have you believe, but that's probably just me. And I suck at writing fight scenes, so why'm I complaining?_

_As you could probably guess from the __**Glaring**__ hints, the next foe that the Z-Fighters are going to face is my personal favorite: Broly, the Legendary Super Saiyan (not "Super Saiyan of Legend"; that's a whole 'nother matter). But will he just be another push over like Cooler, or could he possibly be too much for our heroes to face? Idunno, but it'll still be an awesome fight nonetheless!_

_For those that are thinking that I made Vegeta change too quickly, or that the reason he transformed was wrong, then let us have a little heart-to-heart on the matter. For one thing, the dude would have been crying ten seconds later if he had been hit by the Death Beam, and that shows everyone that you aren't completely cold and ruthless, no matter how hard you try to hide it. He also isn't as cocky or arrogant as he was in canon because he survived Frieza's beating and then had a lot of time to dwell on it, not mention being there when Goku ascended as opposed to just seeing the results. This man's life until that moment had just been rendered moot, and he damn well knew it. So where else to go from the bottom but up?_

_And then it was his turn to go golden. Some of you have said that he would never ascend because Goku died like with Krillin, he still hated him too much. And that's almost true. See, he didn't transform because he felt any real sadness over Goku's 'death' so much as he realized that the best that his race had to offer had just been snuffed out. So it's still about the saiyans as a whole, but definitely on a more positive note than usual. Also, I twisted the "I don't care anymore" reason from canon into something that actually made sense… I hope._

_If you have any more questions about the story, go right ahead and ask them. I'll do my best to answer them as clearly as I can, but no promises. I've also allowed Anonymous reviews, which I didn't even realize were, by default, off. I had to log into my account from my mom's iphone to figure that out. Go figure._

_And check out the other story that I've posted from my profile. If you like Batman stories and are a fan of Harley Quinn, then you might just like what you find._

_Laters!_


	5. And Behold, a Pale Horse

_**AN: **__And so it's come to this: the confrontation with Broly in just the fifth chapter. Seems I compressed the storyline a bit too much…or did I?_

_ As for the question of "why are they going after Broly now? He shouldn't be active for a few more years!" I shall answer that in this chapter, but not directly. Look in the subtext and piece the hints together. If you can accurately see the story, then I wrote it right, and if not, then I still need a lot more work than I thought._

_ And if you want music for this chapter, I direct you to what I was listening to over and over while I was writing this: __Khush Butt__'s (yes, I'm serious) "Super Saiyan 5 Broly Theme (The Enigma TNG Remix)", "Super Saiyan 3 Broly Theme (The Enigma TNG Remix)", and Bruce Faulconer's "Vegeta–Super Saiyan" in alternating order and not necessarily reflecting what's going to happen in the chapter…maybe…wink wink…nudge nudge…_

_ No not really._

_ …maybe…_

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"T-that-that-" Krillin stuttered uncontrollably, sensing the power of this mysterious saiyan and wishing profusely that he couldn't. It was so monstrous that Frieza now seemed like a child throwing a tantrum in comparison. Not just the sheer strength and magnitude of it, but also the feeling that they were getting by detecting: wild, untamed rage and insanity in boundless amounts, almost infinite from what they could tell.

"There's no way we can actually fight that!" Yamcha protested, once more overcome by fear.

"I have to agree," Tien unexpectedly announced. "Not even a super saiyan holds a candle against that thing. How could any of us possibly stand a chance?"

"We have to try," Goku insisted adamantly, roused from his own fear by the others. He wouldn't let them see just how much he was dreading the confrontation or else they might lose all hope. He was well aware that he was often the rock for them to cling to, and now couldn't be any different.

Vegeta was staring out the window, hands on either side of it. He seemed to be thinking, but Goku had seen the sheen of sweat on his forehead and realized that the prince was just as terrified as they were, and this worried the Earth raised saiyan even more.

"Should we still just face it head on?" Gohan inquired of nobody in general. Goku looked once more towards Vegeta before answering with what he prayed was the right choice.

"Yes. If we can't find a way to overpower this guy, then we probably won't find any other way before it's too late. Let's try to locate him and-" But he was startled into silence when the power signature abruptly vanished. Without the overbearing presence, they all realized that they had developed headaches in trying to cope with sensing it.

"I'm not even going to be so hopeful as to guess that whatever it was just blew itself up," Piccolo remarked, taking off his turban to alleviate his head of any more stress.

"We're never that lucky are we?" Yamcha added glumly. This was turning out even worse than he had feared.

"They're more than likely hiding their power level, or otherwise decreased in power so drastically that we can't feel them anymore." Vegeta deduced, never looking away from his window.

"Is that a good thing? That their power dropped like that?" Krillin asked, nervous to do even that. Goku answered, of a same mind as his fellow saiyan.

"No, it means that he can transform as well, possibly to an even higher level than Vegeta or me."

That news had the same effect on the other warriors as sensing the power to begin with had.

"Higher!?" Gohan blanched. He had believed his father was the strongest man in the universe, but to be so suddenly proven wrong was not a good feeling.

"It would seem the case," Vegeta intoned quietly. His mind was alternately racing for a solution and crawling from the fear. Having his body work against him like that reminded him far too much of when he had faced Frieza on Namek, the only other time he had been completely helpless.

'_But look where that got you'_ he thought to himself. '_You are a Super Saiyan now, one with legends and gods. You cannot, no, __**will**__ not be cowed like some infant being fed by his mother! You are the prince of all saiyans, so act like it!'_

Pushing himself from the observation port, he turned to face the other fighters. Most of them he could barely stand, but were without a doubt some of the strongest allies he would probably ever get, so he would just have to deal with his issues some other time.

"Namek-"He paused, gritting his teeth. "Piccolo, you are the most adept at tracking energy signals so you will need to find the area in which the saiyan was last. We may still be able to find him there. Humans, get everything loose on the ship packed away as tightly as you can. If we run into trouble while still on the ship then we don't want a weight to destroy something important. Gohan, help them. Kakarot," he turned to the man whom he didn't know whether to call rival or nemesis, "you and I are on watch for anything heading towards the ship, whether it be super saiyan or asteroid. Now is not the time to be negligent, especially when there are so many destroyed planets in this vicinity,"

"Um…" Goku looked from the other saiyan to his surprised friends. "Do what he said, I guess. He is the only one with military training after all."

For once, Yamcha didn't complain, just glad that he hadn't been singled out for some suicidal mission or something. He, Tien, Krillin and Gohan set to work with their task, rounding up anything that might become a projectile at a moment's notice. Piccolo also held his peace, simply crossing his legs while levitating and clearing his mind so as better to find their elusive target. It was Goku that questioned the orders.

"Are you sure that we couldn't just locate him ourselves and use Instant Transmission to get to him?" Vegeta crossed his arms over his chest. Without his armor on, he somehow looked a bit taller, though that was probably just a trick of the eyes.

"You said yourself that I'm the one with experience. I learned that in a conquest with either unknown or equally matched opponents, full use of the resources at hand are the only thing standing between crippling defeat and hard earned victory. These 'Z-Fighters', as you so love to call yourselves, all bring something to the field that you and I couldn't."

"Really?" Goku inquired, not sure if he was hearing praise or not.

"Your son is extraordinarily powerful when he is enraged. He could turn the tables at the right time. I dare even say that you might be able to teach him to harness that rage and ascend. The tall bald one has that knack for mimicking moves he's seen to substantial success. You also have it, but you should stick to what you know as a super saiyan so you don't needlessly exhaust yourself. The shorter bald one has a bag full of tricks that can confound enemies ten times his strength. The namekian is clever, often using an opponent's personal flaws against them, like he did when fighting Nappa or Frieza. The hairy one, Yamcha, has a deep resolve when he's not whining like a bitch. He won't back down once he's in a fight, even if it's clear he's going to lose."

"How do you know so much about them? You barely even know them." Goku had been taken aback by the news of his son's potential, but the rest had surprised him as well. He was becoming more and more thankful that Vegeta was on their side for this one.

"I learn more about someone by watching them fight," the prince offered simply, turning on his heel to head towards the airlock.

"And I learn more about you by the minute," Goku uttered quietly, grinning widely and following quickly.

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Goku had once seen a really old arcade game in a shopping center that Chi-Chi had dragged him to when she was still pregnant with Gohan. It had been tucked into a back corner of a small game center where small children were given a few dollars by their worn down parents and Goku had thought the machine had looked a little sad and unused so he had inserted one of the few zany coins he bothered carrying and played the wood paneled game.

To his surprise, he had found himself to be a natural at it. The Goal was to shoot oncoming rocks with your little ship in the middle and avoid being hit, since even one collision resulted in failure. It reminded him greatly of firing off ki blasts to block other ones, so he just envisioned the wire-framed hazards as multicolored lasers instead. Unfortunately, he had gotten a little too into it and had yanked the joystick straight out of the panel. Guiltily looking about to see if anyone had seen, he had replaced the joystick as best he could and dashed off to regroup with his wife and never spoke a word of the destruction again (well, except to Krillin over the phone; the dwarf had laughed at him for a few minutes and had needed to be stopped by Master Roshi before he could pass out from lack of oxygen).

But those memories came rushing back to the Earth's savior as he stood on the outside hull of Capsule 3, safely encased within a hazard suit and firing off small ki bullets to demolish oncoming space debris. Vegeta had been correct when he had talked about asteroids as there were now hundreds of thousands all around them and the ship was in genuine danger. Only the intervention of the two full bloods kept their companions safe within. Goku was stationed on technically the bottom of the ship, though everything looked and felt the same as usual, and Vegeta at the top.

"You two alright out there?" Tien's voice opened up next to Goku's ears. He had been watching the monitors for the two suits and made sure that neither of them ruptured something with their exertions of power.

"Just fine," Goku answered cheerily, enjoying his task like he had that video game. A grunt was Vegeta's answer, but that was nothing new. The prince's sudden chattiness had left him as soon as they had pulled the suits on and had left the sealed air lock to enter nearly empty space. Probably something to do with the over-large suit, which had been designed for someone with Goku's height in mind. "Anything from Piccolo?"

"Not yet, but he said that he's narrowed down the prospective area and will probably find our guy in half an hour at the most."

The saiyans continued their task in silence for a while after that. Goku tried to entertain himself by counting how many asteroids he could destroy in a minute, and then break record in the next, but that soon grew tedious, not to mention confusing with all of the numbers. He tried to start up a conversation with Vegeta several times, but the prince always told him to shut up and stay alert. Humming didn't help either, as that both aggravated Vegeta and proved just how tuneless Goku actually knew. Once, he had thought he saw something that looked suspiciously like one of the saiyan attack pods but crushed and deformed with what looked horribly like frozen blood trailing out of it, but he lost track of it and soon forgot all about it.

Blessedly, their monotonous task was halted when they abruptly exited the asteroid field into clear space, but it was here that they first saw actual evidence of the renegade saiyan's handiwork: what had once been a titanic sized planet was now just cored husk, the burnt and dead surface matching the cold inner core that was visible thanks to more than a hemisphere of the planet that was missing, presumably the asteroids they had just passed. It was a terrible sight to behold, especially when they realized that it was one of the few planets that was still even partially intact, the rest having been disintegrated by fierce energy attacks.

"No reason at all," Gohan's voice came over the internal comlink, fear and sadness clear in his voice. "Just… mindless death."

"Take a good long look boy," Vegeta rumbled, rougher than usual. "This is what reality is: just a senseless chain of events that causes everyone nothing but misery and inevitably death."

"Don't scare him like that!" Goku shot back, angered by the other saiyan's words. They weren't meant for a boy still so young.

"So you would rather we coddle him like his mother wants? Keep him from the harsh truths that everyone else has to live with? No, he is a saiyan and saiyans do not shy away from the atrocities just because they feel squeamish about a few dead bodies."

"When have you ever been 'squeamish' around horror like this?" Goku countered, fully expecting an angry retort. Instead, what he got was barely higher than a whisper.

"Once, perhaps. Long ago now."

"I found him!"

They were all startled by Piccolo's sudden exclamation, but were soon asking him in over lapping voices for what he had found. Unable to make sense of their cacophony, the namekian tried to out wait their impatience, but that was sorely underestimating their impatience. Eventually, he had to shout for them to all shut up, his deep voice carrying an edge of danger, like a schoolteacher's. When they were at last silent, he shared what he knew.

"It took me awhile, but I located the only saiyan energy signature not on this ship to a planet not far from here, about half a day's journey at full thrust. Get inside you two; we wouldn't want to accidentally lose our super saiyans." They followed his advice and were soon back aboard, watching as the computer counted down until they reached the designated location Piccolo had inputted.

The only final preparation to be made was for them to have one last meal before the upcoming battle. They ate in silence, and even Goku found that his appetite was far more diminished than usual, though that may have been due to the zero gravity environment he had just left.

"Hey guys; I know why we can't die here," Krillin suddenly piped up, smiling wanly, "we still have three more seasons of "All My Love For You" left and Chaz hooking up with Cecelia is looking like a sure thing."

"Bull!" Yamcha objected, pointing with his spoon at the dwarf. "You know damn well that she has her eyes on Markus!"

"You mean his twin," Tien corrected. "But she won't do it; she's still wearing her wedding ring and obviously still loves Jack."

The debate raged on amongst the warriors, momentarily distracting them from the looming threat ahead. But not even Gohan's over the top impersonation of the groundskeeper Leyland could drown out the computer beeping urgently. Running back into the main hold, they watched as the timer ticked off the last few seconds before turning around and witnessing a large brown planet rising up to meet them, their destinies with it.

_**AN:**__ So the stage is set for the epic confrontation with the Legendary Super Saiyan next chapter. Please keep in mind that these aren't Ascended Super Saiyan Goku and Vegeta, or Ultra Super Saiyan Goku and Vegeta, or Full Power Super Saiyan Goku and Vegeta; just regular Super Saiyan Goku and Vegeta. I intentionally made it this way so that whatever chance they had in the first Broly movie would be well and truly absent._

_Also, please note that I used Vegeta in a commander like position, similar to another Fanfic, "Crimson" by GothicDream, which was a heavy inspiration for another story I'm doing. I always liked when Vegeta used his experience from the PTO and ordered his soldiers or allies around to completely outdo his opponent; it was a chance for Vegeta to really shine, not just get beaten up by the villain to show how tough they are and make Goku look good when he beats them up in turn._

_ If anyone was wondering (I doubt it), I do have a way of judging how strong some of the characters are; specifically, their transformations. It's to use the 'power multiplier' scale, but only to compare increases in strength, not the actual strength itself. For instance: I have Goku at SSJ as __**52x**__ and Vegeta at __**50x**__ but with a slightly higher base than Goku so they somewhat balance out. If, say, Nappa became a Super Saiyan, then he would only be about a __**40-42x**__. I'm not sure where Raditz would hypothetically be since you have to balance his unimpressive base with having the same blood as Goku, the guy with possibly the highest potential out of everyone in the show. Goten and Trunks are likely only at __**30-35x**__ since their transformations were inherited rather than earned. Gohan probably only had a __**50x**__ increase like Vegeta, but his plot device, sorry, rage gives him the edge when it's awakened._

_ And then there's Bardock. Now, whether you still dispute the legitimacy of "Episode of Bardock" is irrelevant for now. In it (__**SPOILER**__) he goes back in time and becomes a Super Saiyan to beat Chilled, Frieza's ancestor. At the end of "Bardock: Father of Goku", he had an equitable power level of around __**10,000**__, putting him on even standing with the royal family. If he received a zenkai upon being sent into the past courtesy of Frieza's Supernova, then his increase might be anywhere from a __**5,000-10,000**__ jump all the way up to one of Vegeta's Namek zenkais such as __**1,000,000-3,000,000**__. Much is left up to debate on this matter, but the point is that he's stronger, though not as strong as Goku was when facing Frieza, and still manages to get thrashed by Chilled. Then he goes all 'Gold Ranger' and wipes Chilled out like he's a food stain on the kitchen counter and the saiyan is a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. While the wrestling aficionado is likely not as strong as his descendant, he's still pretty damn strong and only a Super Saiyan could have beaten him. From this, I got that Bardock would have needed a larger increase than either Goku or Vegeta, so I have estimated his power up at a whopping __**60-65x**__, only outdone by Cell or Buu. And I will be using this whole thing in yet another eventual story; so don't go trying to yank me off by stealing it._

_ Whether you agree or not is perfectly all right so long as you understand what I'm trying to describe. That's sorta the whole point of an Author's Note after all. If you have any questions regarding my little system then by all means ask them. And if you think what I have it wrong and want to argue the point, all the better! That's how I learn guys, not from empty praise or negatives for the sake of negative. You can ask/argue in either a review or a PM; same difference to me._

_ So: will Goku and the guys be able to overcome the might of the insane Super Saiyan? Find out next time on 'Dragon Ball Z: What's in a moment?'…. right now!_

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Walking out onto the planet, they were all struck by how barren it was. There weren't any trees, or grass or any plant life that they could see, just brown landscape in every direction. Mountains were plentiful and they had spied a few valleys and deep canyons on their descent. The ground beneath them was baked hard by the large sun overhead, small chucks littered about as rocks as hard as granite.

There must have been some source of water on the planet, for storm clouds brewed overhead, dark and threatening and waiting to deliver punishment on those below. The wind was eerily still, leaving the clouds unmoved though that hardly mattered as they enveloped most of the world.

"Not exactly my first choice for a summer home," Krillin quipped, chuckling nervously over the tremor that made him shake from within. The others didn't reply, too busy casting out their senses in search of the mysterious saiyan.

"I sense something," Tien remarked, frowning. "But-"

"It's completely different than what we felt earlier," Gohan finished, equally quizzical.

"It could be a trap, to catch us off guard," Piccolo warned, not liking the feeling that he was getting about the whole situation.

"Then don't let your guard down," Vegeta snapped, obviously as wary as the rest of them. "Come on, the only thing we can do is go and investigate. If it does happen to be the guy we're looking for, then we hit him now while his power is down and save ourselves a lot of excruciating pain."

"And if he powers up?"

"Then we get to do what you love best Kakarot: improvise and hope it works."

"Sounds about right." Goku took to the air and led the six others on their flight to the spot where the only notable power level was situated. They flew over miles and miles of brown and black, never once spotting a sign of life.

"Is the planet always like this, or did the saiyan do something to it?" Gohan mused aloud.

"It's a world where the ecology managed to kill itself off," Vegeta answered. "I saw many such as this when I was part of the PTO and destroyed just as many. They can barely support life of any kind and weren't worth the effort of terraforming which is often as expensive as the planet itself. This saiyan probably thought it was a nice place to rest in between genocides."

"Well he only picked his grave," Yamcha growled darkly.

The rest of the flight took place in silence as all of them contemplated just how unlikely it was that most of them would come away from this alive. And then there was the oh so comforting thought that even if they did somehow triumph, the androids still waited for them in a year and a half back on Earth.

Needless to say that spirits were exceptionally low when they landed on a patch of ground that looked exactly like the one they had just left. Ahead was the nearly vertical face of a mountain, gently curved to the side like some kind of soft serve ice cream. A darkened cave was situated in the apex of where two rocky ledges joined in a downward crux, almost hidden in the deep shadow of the mountain.

It was the only place that their target could have been so they cautiously approached on foot, picking their way up the steep incline like a troop of goats. At the mouth of the cave, they lined up against either side of it, their group split as evenly as seven people could be without a senzu bean being necessary.

The strange power level they had been tracking was clearly coming from the hollow, now at a pretty low level: downright feeble in fact. This was unnerving to the group and they readied themselves for an ambush.

Forming a stable ball of immaculate white ki a few inches above his palm, Vegeta crept around the corner, careful to keep his light source above his head to maximize the radius of the illumination. The cave proved to be deeper than what they had initially assumed, winding its way far into the heart of the mountain by way of natural tunnels, some barely inches in diameter and others wide and tall enough for three full grown men to walk abreast and Piccolo to stand on his own shoulders without fear of overhanging stalactites.

"Which way?" Goku asked, carelessly loud and sending his voice echoing all around them. Cringing from the unexpected disturbance, Piccolo smacked the back of his former rival's head in irritation. Confused, Goku was about to complain but his son gesturing urgently for him to stay quiet tipped him off to his blunder. Grinning self-consciously, he gave them a thumbs up and tip toed to the back of the pack.

Grumbling to himself, Vegeta pressed onward down the widest tunnel, wary of the moisture on the rocks beneath his feet that could turn treacherous at a moment of negligence. The Z-Fighters all followed in his footsteps, deciding that following the brutal saiyan wasn't the worst thing that could happen in these tunnels.

Traveling at an agonizingly slow pace, they crept onward, aware that the walls were becoming closer the farther in they went. Even though none of them were claustrophobic, it did seem like there was less oxygen and the temperature was steadily rising. The journey through the dank pit stretched on and on, more than likely leading them well into the heart of the mountain where thousands of tons of stone were waiting to crumple on top of their heads.

The cavern came as a surprise. Simply just there at the end of an especially narrow passage, the volumous chamber was formed into a massive hemisphere as large as a football stadium, the floor of the cave being straight and smooth with curved walls leading upward and inward to meet a point so high up that Vegeta's miniscule orb never had a chance of illuminating through the darkness. The only reason they could survey the cavern at all with the limited lighting was due to the reflective nature of the rocks they stood on. Closer inspection revealed that it was in fact mostly melted into a glass like substance.

Looking around, they realized that not a hint of the other saiyan could be seen. They could barely even sense him anymore as well. This bred uncertainties and fears in them all over again, creating the seed of despair, the one thing that could turn any fighter alive into a simpering coward.

Fortunately, before anyone could begin to freak out, Piccolo held his hand up in a sharp gesture that caught most of them by surprise. They watched as he concentrated intently on something only he was aware of, screwing up his eyes and tilting his head in several different angles and positions. After a moment, he froze, with his head nearly horizontal on his neck. There he remained for several long seconds before-

"He's up there," the namekian announced, indicating with a nod the blanketed darkness that cradled the majority of the chamber, "a small alcove high up in the wall."

"Now that is useful," Yamcha remarked, smiling despite himself. He still remembered the days of King Piccolo, and to see the offspring of that tyrant moving his head around like cat was undeniably funny and he had to bite his lip to prevent himself from giggling outright.

"Let's go. Everyone, make your own light ball; the more light we have the better off we are. If it's an ambush he was planning, then he already knows where we are and we know where he is. Surprise is no longer an option for either of us."

"I suppose that's something," Tien sighed, igniting an orb of pale yellow energy that took up residence about a foot above his shiny crown. The others followed suit, expanding their pool of light out several more meters around them and showcasing just how big the cavern was. "I trained to be an assassin. Surprise is supposed to be our forte. But here I am, flying right towards the danger and prepared to punch it in the face."

"I feel you man," Yamcha chimed, nodding as they rose slowly upward, wary of traps or natural hazards. "Life as a bandit usually consisted of 'shoot the tires, make a show, grab the loot and run.' When exactly did we start facing world ending threats head on?"

"Probably when Raditz came to Earth," Krillin supplied, taking up the rear of the pack. "Before that it was pretty much small adventures and thugs in weird outfits. The saiyans gave us a kick in the butt to up our game."

"Yeah, it seems like we've been doing nothing but preparing for the next big threat ever since then," Gohan spoke up, silent until that point. "Makes you wonder if we'll ever get to enjoy the peace we fought so hard for."

"Don't worry guys." Goku turned about in the air to face them as he continued to ascend. "I know it's tough to go from fight to fight without much of a break, but the work we do is for the good of all. That means our karma payoff is gonna' be HUGE!"

The humans and half saiyan laughed at that, glad for the usual display of confidence and cheerfulness from the peaceful saiyan. It was good to feel some of the levity lift from their shoulders in this cave, a welcome lightening of the mood. Piccolo and Vegeta maintained their now customary silences, but they weren't dampening the mood. If anything, they made it feel like they were a complete group, a familiar scene that reassured the others.

"This is it," Piccolo spoke, looking ahead into the darkness. Now that they knew an alcove existed there, the Z-Fighters could see the line that separated the normal darkness from the deeper shadows of the nook. At the entrance, the rest of them could now hear what had guided Piccolo: soft breathing, almost indistinguishable due to distance and sound absorption. "I believe he's asleep, or else meditating."

"It's as good an opportunity as we'll ever get." Vegeta lead them forward and into the small tunnel, creeping down the water carved hallway as stealthily as before. Goku let Krillin pass him so that they would have a super saiyan on each side in case they needed a quick escape or rear defense.

Rounding a few corners, they were suddenly aware of a light not too far ahead, yellow like Tien's but with a much greater wattage about it, throwing the strands of illumination well out into the passage. Their next few steps were their most cautious with the goal in sight, and they all knew exactly what that meant for them.

Turning into a small room, Vegeta wasn't too surprised to see the figure of a tall and lanky man curled up in the corner, the ki orb safely hovering above his inert form. Judging from what he could see, the man had the typical black hair of the saiyans, though that wasn't much of an indicator by itself. He didn't wear anything on his torso save a large and heavy looking pendant that was shaped to fit into a crease of some kind. On his legs he wore plain white gi pants underneath a red skirt fastened to him by a rigid gold belt. He had several gold bands on his arms and his seemed to be likewise tailored. Dried mud caked the half of his body that was on the floor, but his musculature was still plainly visible. Most of his weight seemed to be in muscle tissue.

There commenced several tense moments where nobody knew quite what to do. It seemed like the element of surprise was on their side despite earlier presumptions and striking now would probably be the only free hit they would ever get in. But it seemed like this guy was already half dead, and that was either disconcerting to some or confusing to others. Eventually, it was Vegeta who broke the tension by doing what none of the others would have done in his place:

He kicked the saiyan's foot and barked "Wake up!"

The formerly slumbering saiyan made a sound that was halfway between a whimper and a yelp as he jerked about in post-sleep discoordination. When he was sitting up and facing them, he rubbed his eyes with the back of his non muddy hand and assessed them with bloodshot eyes with bags below them to indicate a troubled sleeping history.

"Who…are…you?" His voice was barely above a whisper and came in halting stops.

"Another saiyan," Vegeta answered as he knelt down on his haunches so as to be at eye level with the tired man. "We came here looking for you."

"Another…saiyan?" He looked confused, glancing down at the floor for a second in thought. "He said… that there were… no others beside… ourselves."

"'He'? Is there another saiyan beside yourself?" Piccolo inquired, not bothering to squat down.

"No…not anymore."

At the back of the group, Krillin and Goku shared an uneasy look. They had to look over the shoulders of the others to see the mysterious saiyan, but they could see that some of the dried stuff on his clothes and skin was blood. Vegeta seemed to make that connections as well as he changed the subject. "What's your name?"

The man thought for a minute, reaching back through the fog of fatigue. "Broly. My name is Broly."

"I'm Vegeta."

The prince was being surprisingly accommodating of the other saiyan, Goku noticed with some satisfaction. Usually he would just demand answers and threaten them with death if they resisted. Perhaps he was beginning to rub off on the monarch.

"Vegeta? The king?" Something flashed behind Broly's eyes, but it was gone just as quick and nobody quite knew what to make of it.

"No, his son. So you remember your heritage? Better than some I know."

Perhaps not that much had rubbed off, Goku admitted with candor.

"We are the last of our kind, standing in this very room. My companions and I traveled a long way to find you, so tell me honestly; are you the one that destroyed most of the southern galaxy?"

Broly regarded Vegeta with a blank expression, letting on nothing about what he was thinking.

"Yes."

The answer was short and without any form of emotion. It would have been easy to just assume that he was lying, or delusional, but they had all witnessed god breaking power erupt from the most unlikely of sources before.

"Why? You could not possibly have reason to destroy so much and kill so many," Vegeta was trying to keep his voice level, but he felt the anxiety and fear coiling in his gut as he said the words.

"Why not." Broly now stood, prompting all of them to take a step or two back in alarm. He was tall as they had observed before, almost matching Piccolo. His body, however, proved to be in much better shape than they had thought, showing off power just waiting to be released below the surface of his flesh. "They were all weak, all meaningless. They amounted to nothing, just bugs to be squashed at my pleasure. And I had plenty of that."

"You monster!" Gohan instinctively took a step forward, anger overriding his caution.

"Monster?" Broly asked, seemingly amused. "I'm no monster; I'm a devil!"

With that declaration, his aura exploded to life around him, flooding the chamber with amber orange light, though that soon became golden as he easily ascended into the super saiyan form. The others powered up as quickly as they could, Vegeta transforming as Goku jumped to his side and prepared to match him.

But Broly suddenly froze, face written in shock at the appearance of the other saiyan.

"Ka-Kaka…rot?" The tall saiyan seemed short of breath, breathing rapidly and moving with each inhalation. "Kakarot?"

"He knows your name?" Vegeta asked his rival, receiving a quizzical look in return.

"Kakarot!" Broly's surprise had now turned to seething anger, but that progressed far deeper under their watch. Rage began to shake his clenched hands and spittle built up at the corners of his mouth as he issued a low hissing noise. "Kakarot! Kakarot!"

To the horror of the Z-Fighters, they began to feel something unknown and utterly terrifying begin to well up within the enraged saiyan. It seemed alien to the super saiyan power, and yet altogether similar at the same time, like comparing an object to its shadow. Whatever Broly was dragging to the surface, it was darker and more volatile than any had right to touch.

"Kakarot! KAKAROT! KAKAROOOOOOOOOTTT!"

Broly exploded.

And a living nightmare took his place.

DBZ DBZ DBZ DBZ DBZ

Tien, fighting to remain conscious and cradling a shattered femur, watched as a similarly demolished Yamcha landed forcefully into the hard earth a few yards away from him, blood shooting from his mouth on the impact.

"He's too much," the former bandit gasped between gurgling breaths. "There's no way we can beat something like that."

"We have to, unh, have to…try," Tien wheezed out, using the Air Dance technique to float off the ground and alleviate the pressure on his leg. Concentrating, he sculpted his ki into a crude cast around the limb to immobilize it and hopefully prevent any further damage.

"Why? So we can say we went out fighting in the Afterlife?" Yamcha snapped back, but nonetheless getting back to his feet with assistance from the triclops. "Any bright ideas?"

"No, unless hitting him with everything is an option." Yamcha laughed, an action that caused his broken ribs to throb dangerously.

They both flew into the dusk sky and reentered the battlefield of hell unloosed. Ki blasts of various size and colors were flying in every which direction, blasting craters in the ground and extinguishing mountains and cliffs like sand castles. Lightning crackled overhead in the cloudless night, sometimes rich golden and other times neon green. Deep fissures had been carved into the planet as byproducts of kiai waves and energy waves either missing their target or being subverted away from them.

At the center of the chaos, Piccolo flew around to fire off precision ki blasts, though they seemed useless, and Gohan was charging up his father's signature attack in his hands in hopes of getting an opening to use it. Goku and Vegeta were both in mad frenzies, raining down countless blows that would have liquefied Frieza or Cooler, but appeared to be utterly ineffective against their opponent.

Rearing from the smoke of another one of Piccolo's attacks, Broly brought his full might as a Legendary Super Saiyan to bear as he clotheslined the other two saiyans at once, his enormous arms catching them full in the face. His transformation had been a monstrous one; now standing in the vicinity of over nine feet, he was covered from head to toe in rope like muscles that stretched his skin taught across them. His hair had become that same neon green and now stood in spikes that lanced in every which direction, below which his terrible, uniformly white eyes watched in gleeful sadistic pleasure as he crushed his foes beneath his gigantic hands.

Going right along with his appearance, Broly's power had changed completely. It had rocketed upward at an unbelievable rate when he had first transformed, and even now it seemed to be steadily climbing higher and higher. None of them were even close to matching the giant in strength, but his speed seemed to be lacking. Whether it was due to the bulging increase to his muscles or simply because he thought it was more fun this way, he barely moved fasten that a walk, occasionally breaking into short runs and flying at a good clip but never moving faster than any of them could see. It had proved to be one of two advantages that they had over him, the other being that he couldn't sense power levels as they all could.

Even so, Broly was still smashing them into the dust time and time again, never giving a hint that he might be tiring, or hurting from the multitude of blows and attacks that had covered his body. He was an unstoppable tank, and they were just pebbles being thrown at him.

"Special Beam Canno-" Piccolo's shout was cut short by an emerald green ball of ki, no larger than a grapefruit, shooting from Broly's palm and enveloping the namekian in a green and yellow explosion, burning off his mantle and turban. He managed to protect the rest of himself by crossing his arms in front of his face, but when he lowered them, the grinning saiyan was already there, another 'Eraser Shell' primed to fire.

Before the execution could be finished, a column of white-blue energy blasted into Broly's back, succeeding in knocking him away from Piccolo but not much else. Looking over his shoulder, he spotted a panting Gohan and grinned ever wider. He changed direction quickly and zoomed towards the child, too exhausted to avoid the charge.

The half-saiyan was rammed face first into the ground several times before being flung bodily skywards where he was an easy target for an uncharged Eraser Shell. Sailing limply through the air after the explosion, he almost crashed back into the ground until his father intervened, catching him at the last second and laying him down gently.

"Dad…he's so strong…what are we going to do?" Gohan was practically in tears. He felt more helpless than ever in this fight, and that was something he couldn't bear.

"I don't know Gohan," Goku confided quietly, looking back to where Vegeta had reengaged the animalistic saiyan while Tien and Yamcha provided covering fire. It didn't take long for Broly to grab the prince right out of a kick and use him as a shield to absorb some of the shots before they stopped coming. Taking advantage of the hesitation, Broly hurled Vegeta by the leg into the two humans, knocking both of them out of the air. "This looks bad, and I'm not sure that we can pull a miracle off like we have in the past."

Broly next targeted the recovered Piccolo, flying towards him with both arms outstretched like a torpedo. Piccolo stood his ground and tried to counterattack when they he was close enough, but the elastic like arm didn't even phase the mad saiyan as he slammed both fists into the namekian's stomach.

From out of nowhere, a flash of light arced through the night sky and directly towards the monolithic psychopath. Noticing it as well, Broly turned to face it head on and reached out to grab it from the air. However, this was part of the plan as the orb of energy detonated and released a pulse of light identical to that of the Solar Flare technique directly into Broly's unflinching eyes. Reeling back like an electrified beast, the saiyan thrashed around futily, crashing to the ground and squirming there.

"I don't know if that's gonna work a second time, so we need to use the time we've got," announced Krillin as he followed in from the same direction as his attack. Goku had last seen him riding an undetonated ki wave into the horizon, and he looked like he had done exactly that; gi shirt and pants singed and shredded in some places, skin darkened from soot and angry red burns ran up his forearms and forehead.

"Right." Goku helped Gohan to his feet and led the other two to where the rest of the Z-Fighters were still unscrambling themselves from each other. Piccolo alighted a little less than lightly close by, breathing raggedly from the prior assault. "Vegeta, what can we do against this guy? It seems like he's only getting stronger as we get weaker."

"I had heard the legends about his kind," Vegeta huffed, keeping his eyes locked on the writhing opponent. "The Legendary Super Saiyans were our equivalent of berserkers; charging into battle with absolutely no regard for their own life and only wanting to cause as much death and damage as they could. It's even said that some could survive the destruction of a planet."

"That is noooot really helpful right now," Krillin grimaced, hoping that there actually was a plan.

"Well, if we get him angry enough, he should become sloppier and leave bigger openings. How, exactly, we'll exploit these is a whole 'nother matter." Vegeta puffed out a long breath before looking at his fellow warriors. They were all in a sorry state, though Tien was in undoubtedly the worst condition with his broken leg. None of them had proven capable of inflicting any amount of damage on Broly with either physical or energy attacks, but that had been as individuals. A metaphorical scouter beeped as the prince began to form an idea.

"Not to rush anybody, but I think the Solar Flare's beginning to wear off," Yamcha pointed out, indicating Broly who had managed to get back to his feet and was no longer screaming, but he was still clutching at his eyes and was bowed forward at nearly ninety degrees at the waist.

"Alright, I've got something, but it's a long shot," Vegeta declared, running a thumb along the length of his facial scar in a tic he had somehow picked up. "Separately, Kakarot and I are no match against him, even as super saiyans. But together, our power may just be enough to surpass his and wipe him out."

"How are we going to manage that?" Goku inquired, turning his back completely on Broly to give his kinsmen his full attention.

"If we can combine our strongest ki waves and hit him dead on with them, it won't matter what kind of legend he is."

"That reminds me," Krillin spoke up again, looking thoughtful, "; what's the difference between your super saiyan and his? Aren't they both super saiyans of legend?"

"No, not even close. The 'Super Saiyan of Legend' was the story of super saiyans as a whole, while 'Legendary Super Saiyans' were legendary amongst other super saiyans, an upper echelon almost."

"Ah. Makes sense now," Krillin grinned, sweat beading on his dirty forehead and creating rivulets in the dust coating. "Just wanted to get that off of my chest before I charged head long into a suicidal situation. You do want us to distract him for you, don't you?"

"Yes," Vegeta acknowledged shortly, thankful that he didn't have to explain it. The others too seemed to have understood the implications and were steeling themselves for what was sure to be a no win-scenario. Looking at their determined faces, Vegeta grudgingly felt some respect for them in that moment; in another life he himself may very well have curled up into a ball and waited for death. The earthlings really were a remarkable race.

"Alright, if we're going to do this," Piccolo cracked his knuckles in preparation, "now's the time."

He was correct in that regard, as they could see that Broly was now almost fully recovered from the sneak attack, standing up almost straight and blinking rapidly to clear away the splotches of darkness that stained his vision.

"YYAAAAAGGGGHHHH!

"GRRRAAAAAAGGGGHHH!

"HiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"

"RRRRAAAAAAGGGHHH!" As one, all of the Z-Fighters beside the two saiyans powered up as much as they could, causing veins to bulge in various places across their bodies. Their departure was forceful enough to blast the ground into a crater nearly ten meters deep and twice as much wide under where they had stood. Goku and Vegeta watched them go, feeling unmistakably like they had just sent them to their deaths.

"Now, Kakarot! We don't have a second to spare," Vegeta barked, gather his energy into his two hands as he charged the mightiest Gallick Gun he could muster. Goku nodded shortly, cupping his palms and pulling them in close to his side to ready his signature technique. All around them, miniature golden lightning bolts danced along the perimeter of their auras, now joined as one due to their joint effort.

At that point, the Z-Fighters collided with the hulking saiyan, literally barreling into him all at once to destabilize him before he could actually see them coming. Splitting up, they each began to speed around him in a very short and deliberate orbit, raining down blows as fast as their limbs would allow. At their speed, it almost looked like Broly was the nucleus of an atom and the warriors were the electrons circling it.

For half a moment in time, it seemed like they could actually manage to safely fend him off and buy the time they needed. But that fragile hope was shattered when Broly at last regained his sight, and the first thing he should see was Tien flying directly in front of him with a punch halfway between them. Opening his mouth, a green energy wave spewed from within to take the triclops full in the chest, blasting him away and more than likely killing him in the process.

A shout of rage came as Yamcha witnessed the death of his friend and attempted to put his foot through the back of the saiyan's skull. All it did, however, was impact painfully against the unmoving force and leave him open for a haymaker punch to the face. Though not killed by the blow, Yamcha experienced a whole new level of agony as he felt the bones in his face moving when they should have all been a solid mass.

With two of their number already down, Gohan, Piccolo and Krillin decided to create some distance between them and the LSSJ, blasting backwards and towards the mostly destroyed hills that had once been a mountain range. Broly pursued, fully intent on ripping apart the one that had blinded him, probably literally.

Thinking quickly, Piccolo split apart into two with the multiform technique. Now with an extra target to follow, the namekian hoped that the saiyan wouldn't know which one to follow. Broly was indeed confused by the sudden division, but he compensated by throwing an Eraser Shell attack at each of the retreating figures in rapid succession.

Noticing the oncoming orb of emerald energy, Krillin turned to face it while maintaining his flight and created a small Destructo Disk which was promptly thrown to intercept. The disc did its job nicely, slicing the Eraser Shell almost perfectly in half and leaving them to detonate harmlessly in its wake. Deciding that he could use this to his advantage, Krillin guided the kienzan towards where Broly was flying after one of the Piccolos.

Unfortunately, the rouge saiyan had already seen something like this just a few minutes prior and knew to avoid it. Dodging around the buzzing blade, he fired off a small ki bullet from his hand to destroy it before turning his attention on the one that had thrown it. Seeing the evil grin he was receiving, Krillin balked and tried to fly even faster. But he stood not a chance when pitted against the attributes of Broly.

Outstripped in just a few seconds, the bald dwarf flew head first into the outstretched hand of the saiyan, closing to crush and immobilize him. Screaming from the pain, Krillin tried to erupt his energy outward as he'd seen Gohan and Goku do in the past, but Broly's might was just too terrible to counter at this range. Feeling his bones bending like willow branches, he tried desperately to summon up the energy for an energy wave so as to fire it from his feet, but his strength had vanished and he knew that he was about to die in horrible pain.

"YAH!" Gohan's fist slammed into Broly's face with the full might of an enraged half saiyan behind it. It did nothing to the maniac, but he did lose interest in Krillin and released his hold on him, allowing his limp body to fall to the ground far below. Turning his opaque eyes on the seven year old, Broly actually licked his lips in anticipation of the slaughter that was to commence. Not bothering to block or dodge any of the punches and kicks sent his way by the hybrid, he simply tanked them, grinning all the while.

When Gohan put too much force behind an uppercut and smashed his fingers into the rock hard surface of Broly's body, the full blooded saiyan rammed his head forward and delivered a savage head butt that broke the boy's nose, evidenced by the spurt of blood that coated his own chest. Not letting him regain his senses, Broly grabbed Gohan by one leg and swung him around in increasingly fast arcs before releasing his grip and sending him plummeting towards the ground.

Before any further harm could be done, one of the Piccolos swooped in and grabbed the boy out of the air as his father had done not too long before. The other namekian flew in from under Broly's line of sight and loosed a concussive wave of ki that buffeted him back a few feet through the air without causing any harm. The Piccolos quickly met up and rejoined into one, Gohan still in his arms, concussed and struggling to bring his mind back under control.

"UHAHAHAHAHA! Die now, like WORMS!" Broly spoke for the first time in the LSSJ form, and it wasn't much of a deviation from his monstrous nature. One of his emerald green ki orbs blossomed in his palm, seemingly ordinary to all the rest before. But when he threw it at the two warriors, it expanded in size rapidly until it had matched the Spirit Bomb used on Namek, but this was much more terrifying to behold. Broly continued to laugh as his attack approached the last two non-saiyan warriors, relishing in their doom. Down on the ground, an exhausted Piccolo tried to cover Gohan with his form, knowing full well that it would do no good.

Unexpectedly, an enormous beam of golden energy slammed into the side of the Omega Blaster, easily diverting its path and pushing it far into the horizon where it detonated with an explosion that would dwarf any human made armaments ever conceived. Broly howled in anger, thoroughly tired of last second recues preventing him from finishing off his prey.

"Worth it," Goku murmured as he and Vegeta dropped their arms and lost their transformations. Using up their charged attacks to save Piccolo and Gohan hadn't been the Princes' idea, but he had been surprisingly agreeing about it, though Goku couldn't pinpoint the reason. He had become more of a good guy than he probably would ever admit in the past two years, and in that short time that they'd known each other, Goku had seen the person he knew Vegeta could become start to emerge from that shell of brutality and coldness.

"Kakarot!" Broly snarled upon seeing the target of his wroth. "Where have you been hiding? And you, Prince Vegeta. He was always talking about how you would be my main goal, the one that I **had** to kill. But we he took too long. You're as pathetic and boring as he was."

"Whatever," Vegeta brushed the insult off, not seeing Broly as one who could really judge him. "I never thought I would die fighting beside you, Kakarot, and not against you."

"Times change, enemies get stronger and allies are more needed than ever," Goku observed with a grin.

"I'll take my time squashing you!" Broly declared, pointing both palms at them and using his Trap Shoot attack to fill the sky with dozens of ki bullets. Fatigued as they were, the two saiyans managed to dodge the majority of the projectiles, moving in tandem to avoid a collision with each other. For the few that did hit them, the pain was fierce, but the attack was weak enough individually that they weren't about to lose a limb in the flurry.

Just as the volley ended, Broly reared up above them with arms pulled up over his head and that ever present insane grin plastered on his face. Slamming a fist into both saiyans at once, he sent them careening into the ground, geysers of dirt and rock sprouting up at their landing points. Following close behind, he reached into the two holes and extracted his opponents with large hands around their necks. Increasing the pressure on their throats, he delighted in the sounds of their agonized screaming, finding it more appealing than any orchestra recording Paragus had ever listened to.

Slamming the two Z-Fighters bodily together several times, he hurled first one and then the other towards the horizon. Giving chase, he reached Goku's speeding body first, planting him into the ground again with devastating elbow to the chest. He caught up to Vegeta next and took a handful of his hair, bringing him to a very painful stop. Holding the royalty in front of him, Broly snickered before hammering blows into him, only stopping when blood oozed from the other saiyan's mouth. Letting go off the hair, Broly punted Vegeta away like a ball, a comparison the Prince wasn't appreciating right then.

Managing to take control of his flight and assume a hover, Vegeta observed the wrecked battlefield critically. He knew that the combined energy attack had been there only chance of stopping this brute, and now neither he nor Kakarot had enough energy to pull it off again.

But something caught his attention on the outer fringes of the one-time mountain range: Piccolo had covertly collected and relocated all of the Z-Fighters to a relatively safe place and was now doing his best to help them. His brand of magic was more alteration than restoration as the child namekian's had been, but he could alleviate the pain and partly mend the bones. Unbelievably, all of the humans were still alive, though Tien had a disgusting burn mark on his chest and Yamcha's face had swollen to the point of disfigurement. But if they were properly treated soon, then they could probably make a full recovery. Not the most likely of scenarios, but Vegeta had learned to be at least a little optimistic.

Suddenly, an idea, a crazy, ludicrous, and hardly feasible idea, came to him in that moment. It was such a long shot that he knew Kakarot would have taken it if their positions had been reversed. Making sure that Broly wasn't paying him any more attention, Vegeta descended to where the Z-Fighters were recuperating. Landing amongst them, he took a moment to look each of them in the eyes before he spoke.

"This brute had torn apart our every attempt to defeat him. He laughs off our strongest attacks and brushes aside our defenses. But he is still most definitely mortal. He is still made up of flesh and blood, and as such he follows the same rules as everyone else. I have one last plan that, but I need all of your help to pull it off."

The others were silent, either because they were in too much pain to speak or because they were mulling this information over. Vegeta could tell that they still did not fully trust. Rather than anger him, it was actually a relief; it meant that they weren't fools and blindly followed Kakarot's cheerful view of the universe. They might just stand a chance after all.

"What do you need us to do?" Krillin stepped forward, nursing a dislocated shoulder. He spoke with the voice of them all, and they were willing to cooperate with the Prince. Vegeta knew then that he had chosen the correct allies.

DBZ DBZ DBZ DBZ

Goku crossed his arms in front of his face to block another punch from the still ascended Broly, but having so many already, his arms were numb with pain and the defense broke. The next blow took him across the face, spraying spittle and blood from between clenched teeth. The pain it caused was maddening, but the Earth Raised saiyan doggedly held on, determined to give everything he had before he could die.

"Do you know just how much I hate you Kakarot?" Broly inquired, slamming yet another punch into Goku as he spoke. "I haven't gone a single day without fantasizing about ripping out you spine, or burning your flesh off, or crushing your skull like a nut. For thirty years, I have survived on the death of others, but I always imagined that they were you, and I was killing you billions of times over. But this," another punch, "this is far better than I possibly could have imagined. Here you are, and here I am, and you are dying just as slowly as I had wanted. Everything is perfect about this."

Goku couldn't muster up the spare strength to ask why Broly hated him so much, but that hardly mattered right then. He could barely move his arms any more, and his legs were locked, freezing him in a standing position and only miracles kept him from tripping backwards. The odds had never, to his memory, been worse. Even when Vegeta had attacked the Earth and he had been crushed to immobilization, a glimmer of hope had always persisted. But here and now, there wasn't anything but Broly's punches and that horrible laughter. 'Maybe it's because there was sunlight when you fought Vegeta,' a feverish part of his brain supplied, almost eliciting a giggle from the saiyan.

As Broly pulled his arm far back to deliver his most powerful attack yet, Goku readied himself as best he could manage, but even he knew that this was the end. There would be no more blocking or running after this one. It would be up to Broly how much pain Goku endured before dying, and he didn't much like those odds. The fist descended, rending the air as it went. Goku squeezed his eyes shut and anticipated the end.

What he felt however, was a stream of energy flow into his tired body. It wasn't much, but it refilled him just enough that he could now buy himself some leeway. Snapping his eyelids back up and seeing how close he was to getting destroyed, Goku loosed a scream as he powered up and regained his ascension, only just managing that. With the instant boost in power, he managed to halt Broly's fist with his own, a shockwave erupting from the point of contact.

"What?! How?!" For the first time since the fight had begun, Broly seemed flustered, unused to this kind of second wind, and in that instant he was vulnerable. Seizing upon the opportunity, Goku brought his other fist around and slugged the Legendary Super Saiyan as hard as he could across the jaw. Broly staggered backward, more surprised than hurt, but still definitely hurt. "I felt that," he announced dumbly, mind catching up.

Goku didn't actually know himself, but he wasn't about to question it now. Flipping backwards, he landed in a low crouch from which he launched himself like a sprinter towards the goliath saiyan. Broly swung his arm in an attempt to take Goku off his feet, but the peaceful saiyan dodged below and carried out a spin so the heel of his foot hit the LSSJ in the back of his leg as hard as he could. Expecting a forward attack, Broly buckled at the knees from the unexpected imbalance and fell straight into a momentum fueled roundhouse kick to the face. Impossibly, it seemed that Goku was actually causing damage where before he couldn't even phase this opponent.

The reason for this was something Broly had never dealt with before: intelligent fighting. Goku hadn't just been idly blocking and dodging; he had been observing Broly's fighting style and movements, looking for the small details that could bring down any giant. He learned that Broly favored his left fist, but mostly used his right leg for offense. It had been apparent that the saiyan was always moving forward, putting all of his weight forward when not moving and leaving him imbalanced. While he did have excellent eyesight despite the lack of irises, his other senses were noticeably weak, untrained by grueling training or survival situations.

All of these little hints were now what were keeping Goku alive and, for the moment, with an advantage over the psychopathic saiyan. Skipping away from a backhanded swing, Goku fired off a dozen micro ki bullets into Broly's face, just enough sting to threaten the exposed eyes and get him to turn his head away from the onslaught. Running around in the other direction to get at his back, Goku charged forward on foot and football tackled the larger saiyan. If it had been meant to topple him, it would have failed utterly; but that had not been his goal. Now with a firm grip, he flew into the air, dragging Broly with him, until they got to an appropriate altitude. Once there, Goku flipped them around and entered a sharp nosedive straight down. Broly attempted to grab the other saiyan, but his muscles proved too bulky to allow that much freedom of movement, and he was left to almost comically grope at his own shoulders.

Riding all the way down, Goku crashed Broly head-first into the hard rock and gravel of the ground. When they had burrowed a good ways, Goku let go and fired twin orbs from his palms that took his place and propelled Broly even further down before detonating, bring the tunnel closing in on him and encasing him under several tons of nature. Goku had made it out safely and now took a breather. He wasn't idiotic enough to assume that Broly was finished, or even severely wounded from that assault, but it had bought him some time to prepare.

Sure enough, after only a few seconds, Broly's energy spiked and sharp ribbons of green light split the ground before it entirely exploded, leaving a massive crater around where Broly now hovered. Looking around, the mammoth of a man couldn't see Goku anywhere and guessed that he had been buried in the blast. Rising above the lip of the hole as magma began to gush into it from a ruptured stream not far away. Suddenly, as all things seemed to be around him, he heard a strange static sound form behind him to see Goku there, Hunched over with a pulsing blue energy wave contained in between his palms.

"HAAAAAA!" Goku released the ki wave point blank, pouring all of his energy into maintaining the destructive power for as long as he could. But as he struggled to keep up the attack, he began to see a shape approaching through the mass of light: Broly, moving calmly through the energy as though it wasn't there and advancing on Goku through the air. Panicking, Goku pushed harder, redoubling his focus on the Kameamea, but it was in vain. Broly reached through the beam of blue and gripped Goku by the front of his gi. Giving a sharp yank, Broly pulled Goku above him, terminating the attack in the process.

"How do you like the taste of dirt?" Broly snarled before throwing Goku hard towards the ground. Feeling like a bullet being fired from a gun, Goku slammed into the ground, only going a few feet through the surface before his movement died off. Groaning, he rolled onto his back right as Broly cannoned into him, legs like battering rams. Screaming, Goku arched his back upward while Broly returned to the air, an Eraser Blaster charging in his hand. "This ends now, Kakarot. I've had my fun and now I'll send you straight to Hell!"

"No…" Goku managed to whimper, trying to crawl backwards out of his small crater as the golden light once again disappeared from his hair and leaving him completely drained. He had given it everything he had and more, but he still felt like there was more to be done. 'Well, besides making sure Broly doesn't terrorize another planet ever again,' he emended to himself.

"Good-bye Kakarot!" Broly began to laugh as he charged even more energy into his attack, swelling it to frightening proportions. Everything on the ground as far as Goku could see was tainted by that neon green, the shadows cast into stark contrast. It did look as much like the end of the world as Goku imagined it would, but that made it all the more terrifying.

Peace settled over him then. He knew better than to die full of regrets. When he had sacrificed himself to kill Raditz, he hadn't known about the other saiyans and so passed on content with all he had achieved in life. He did that now, remembering his family in every detail he could bring forth, his friends, defeating Frieza in single combat and coming to know Vegeta better than most anyone else. The Prince had begun down the path to reform, same as Piccolo had when he had trained Gohan for a year.

_'Kakarot.'_

In fact, it almost seemed like he could hear Vegeta's voice in his mind, like the echo of their duel back on Earth. Could they have really been mortal enemies just two years ago?

_'Kakarot!'_

The voice even sounded annoyed, just as he could usually recall Vegeta being. Funny that those were the memories of the other saiyan that he could easily recall.

_'Kakarot, you idiot! Move!'_

"Huh?" Goku uttered aloud, finally recognizing telepathy for what it was.

_'MOVE!'_

Deciding not to question the order, just this once, Goku willed himself onto his feet and started to run in the side, away from Broly.

"Yes! Run! Make it fun for me!" The insane saiyan chortled, maintaining his aim at his reviled nemesis. He didn't even need to, seeing as his Eraser Blaster (now probably an Omega Blaster) was packing enough power to level a quarter of the planet. Deciding that he had delayed long enough, Broly prepared to loose the blast and end Kakarot once and for all.

One more time that night, Broly was interrupted from his course, this time by a voice.

"Broly! If you mean to test yourself against a true saiyan warrior, then sit back and enjoy the show!"

The Legendary Super Saiyan debated for a second before deciding 'why not?' and looked over his shoulder towards the voice. It was Vegeta, hovering in the air, level with him but distanced quite a bit away. He was ascended into super saiyan, baring his teeth and clenching his fists, veins throbbing in both temples, apparently from anger.

"You again?" Broly laughed loudly at that, enjoying himself once again. He had enjoyed pounding Kakarot into a pulp, and now he would get that chance again with the Saiyan Prince. "If you wanted to die so badly, who am I to refuse?" Broly dismissed his Ki blast and turned fully to fly at the remaining saiyan, wanting badly to rip parts from his body.

Vegeta waited as long as he could until he was certain that Goku had gotten far enough away for him to put the last phase of his desperate plan into action. Growling from the exertion, Vegeta allowed the energy he had been stoking inside of himself to come roaring to the surface. For the moment, it manifested as a titanic golden aura that towered far above both himself and Broly and reilluminated the area with a wash of midas.

The energy sent to Goku had just been a portion of what the Z-Fighters had given Vegeta, pouring every last ounce of power into him until most had passed out or collapsed. While Goku had fought Broly with the extra energy, the Prince had concentrated his own pool of borrowed ki until he had it completely in sync with his own. From there, he tempered it to increase the raw power and sheer size of the power until it had become something he had scarcely dreamt possible for him to control. In danger of self-destructing from shattering his limit, he had positioned himself behind Broly and was now about to unleash what he had only conceived several minutes before.

"What's with the light show?" Broly quizzed as he halted his flight for the moment, secretly awed by the spectacle. But then the aura began to shrink in on itself, becoming a more and more rich golden color until it became opaque and dazzling to see. Even then it shrank back into Vegeta, until it was a skintight sheen that outlined the Prince like some kind of god. When that was complete, Vegeta thrust his hands out to either side, power crackling along both palms.

"This…is for sullying the saiyan race!" Vegeta announced, slamming the heels of his hands together, fingers clawed inward. The coalesced energy took hold there, briefly appearing in fits and bursts with the fluctuations of his aura.

Broly did not know how to sense energy. He had never even heard of such a technique, and even if he had he would have dismissed it as inconsequential. But in that spot of the Universe, at that moment in time, he could **feel** the unbelievable power crawling along his skin, setting coating his teeth with a coppery taste.

"What…what is that?" He stuttered. Vegeta answered him, simply and with only two words:

"**FINAL FLASH!**"

What could only be described as divine intervention erupted from between Vegeta's fingers, filling the world with pure light and the roar of Armageddon. The column of energy sheared through the empty air like Death's scythe, leaving not a single shadow along Broly's body. For his part, the Legendary Super Saiyan could only realize how wrong he had been to give Vegeta time to charge the attack, and shout out the ultimate summarization of his thoughts and feelings.

"Oh Shit!"

And then it hit him, the full and unyielding power of the Prince of all Saiyans. Spread eagle against the head of the scorching energy, Broly screamed in rage and denial as he was propelled over the lands, through the air, past the stratosphere and far, far into the cold reaches of space. Vegeta persisted for several minutes after Broly had vanished, making sure that it breached the limits of the solar system before at last releasing his hold over the energy and falling to the once again dark ground, exhausted.

As he lay there in the dirt, he watched the last vestiges of the Final Flash disappear amongst the stars, taking and ending the unholy nightmare with it. Letting out a breath of relief, he closed his eyes for a second to savor the silence. Feeling a small ki signature approaching, he looked over in that direction to see Goku walking slowly towards him, still looking up in the sky.

"I think you got him," Goku remarked, giving Vegeta a large grin. The Prince waved him away lazily, unable to hide his own smile. The other Z-Fighters were limping towards them, carefully supporting each other and already shouting out praise and congratulations to the two saiyans. Vegeta wearily pushed himself onto his elbows and shook his head until they quitted enough for him to speak.

"Today, I don't give a damn about glory. I only know that I'm lucky to be alive…and I owe that in large part to all of you. I won't say it again, so listen close: you guys kick ass." They laughed at that and Goku helped the Prince to his feet. "Now let's get back to the ship and get you patched up. Yamcha was ugly enough before and I can barely stand to look at him now."

**AN:**_ And that's that. I went against the style of Dragon Ball Z and crammed the whole fight scene into one chapter. How's that for ya?_

_ Tell me what you thought of the chapter in some reviews. I used to get annoyed when authors asked readers to "read and review", but now I know what they feel like…cuz I am one now. Huh. Anyways, it's far more beneficial for my writing if you do leave constructive reviews, not just praise. Not to say I don't appreciate those, but I don't learn anything from 'em._

_ Next chapter should be out a lot sooner since it's not going to be nearly as long as this one (35 pages on Microsoft Word with the double spacing required for posting on ). 'Till next time!_


	6. The Deadliest Trap of All

**AN: **_So now we re-enter the realm of filler until the arrival of the androids. Still have a year to go and a lot can happen in that amount of time, especially when Goku's on the same planet. Guy just seems to draw trouble like a… hmm. I was trying to come up with a clever DBZ analogy to tie that together, but nothing._

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Capsule 3 zipped through the cosmos as gracefully as a giant and poorly shaped ship could. None of the occupants much cared about the matter of aesthetics, so long as it did the job and got them back home. They were now in the second week of their return journey and it felt much like the time spent traveling towards Broly, except half of their number had spent most of the time in bed, recovering from their wounds. Tien and Yamcha had made remarkable recoveries, leaving hardly any indication of their grievous injuries; mostly due to the treatments of Piccolo and copious amounts of first-aid from the ship's mini infirmary.

The interior of the ship had taken some damage despite their preparations. No matter how tightly you packed something down, the shockwaves from a detonated Omega Blaster were bound to rattle loose something. Fortunately none of the vital systems had been damaged by storm, though most of the training equipment was totaled.

Day to day proceedings had taken up a routine for the non-bed confined: wake, bathe, eat, perform various hobbies, watch an episode or two of "All My Love For You", eat again, and sleep. Before they might have complained about the monotony of it, but after surviving the clash with the Legendary Super Saiyan, they began to appreciate tedium and all the little things it held.

The daily activities were interrupted on an otherwise unremarkable day when the short wave sensors picked up a bizarre frequency that sounded pretty much like binary beeps. Deciding that a short detour wouldn't really matter, Gohan managed to alter their course (he was the only one with the know-how to do it) and off they went to investigate.

Just a day later, they came upon a planet that was mostly covered in ice and snow. This wouldn't have been very remarkable except for the fact that it was only the second planet away from its lively sun. Touching down on the surface of the planet, the landing struts sank a foot into the snow, indicating that this global freeze hadn't been going on for too long. Goku and Vegeta headed out alone, deciding that they would just see what the deal was and come right back without bothering the others.

As they flew across the land, they eventually spotted an enormous structure looming ahead; of a similar spherical nature as their ship but apparently made of stone. High above, only barely visible through the thick cloud cover, a large device hung in the low atmosphere and was spewing out a dark gas or smoke.

"What do you want to bet that that's what's causing the freezing?" Goku called over to Vegeta.

"I am not even tempted to take that bet Kakarot."

Before they had gotten close enough to observe the satellite, four figures shot forward to block their path in what was obviously supposed to be an impressive show of speed. Hovering there ahead of the saiyans with pompous (or blank, in one case) grins, were four aliens, all of differing species. There was a blonde haired man with green-grey skin and horns protruding from his hair, a fat creature with a breastplate on and two undersized wings flapping slowly behind him, an orange skinned guy with horns like the first one and covered in muscles, and a freaky little green creature with bulging yellow eyes.

"Who would be so foolish as to dare and approach the flagship of the great Lord Slug?" The grey skinned one inquired, the most powerful one from what Goku and Vegeta could sense though that wasn't saying much at all with this group.

"Just a couple sightseers," Goku supplied innocently, not exactly lying. They didn't buy it, however and let energy crackle along their hands in what might have been intimidating if one of them wasn't grossly fat and another looked like a mutant pug. "Well, we just wanted to ask a question."

"And what would that be?" The large orange one barked, more brutish than the other.

"Is Lord Slug responsible for freezing this planet?"

The four thugs laughed at this, sharing in some joke. Vegeta puffed out a breath and tapped a beat on his leg as he waited for them to cease their idiotic behavior. He passed the seconds by checking off on a list he had once made: the grey one was the pretty one, big orange was the ugly one though that ran double for the winged one whom he was sure was also the dumb one, and the little…thing probably had some bizarre and weird power. He wondered if guys with 'lord' before their names had to follow a guideline when picking their henchmen.

"Yeah, he's freezin' this 'ere planet," The fat one chortled, revealing his brown and blunted teeth. "Lord Slug's gonna' to make it into a ship and go 'round in space to freeze other planets and make them into ships too."

"And the people living on these planets?" Goku asked. Vegeta could see that the other saiyan was getting angry, and that suited him just fine.

"Well, let's just say that Lord Slug does enjoy ice statues," pretty boy snickered, completely forgetting that Goku was only supposed to ask the one question.

Goku looked toward Vegeta. "Henchmen or Big Bad?" Vegeta weighed his options.

"Henchmen. I finished off Broly so it's your turn this time."

"Heh, thanks Vegeta," Goku chuckled, enjoying the humor and not what was to follow.

"What are you two talking about? You think we'll just stand here and let you-" Orange was interrupted when he was disintegrated by a lone ki blast from the Prince's palm, leaving only smoke and dust to finish his sentence, and they weren't very talkative.

"This won't feel nice," Vegeta warned the others, a dangerous smirk pulling his scar up his cheek. The other henchmen were predictably flustered by the death of their teammate, but they soon rallied and leapt forward to attack the lone saiyan as Goku sped past to confront Lord Slug.

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Vegeta pointed a finger as the satellite above and fired of a shot like a gun, briefly jumping into Super Saiyan to augment the blast. As the Terra-Freeze device exploded and left the sky to clear up, Goku landed a few feet away, completely unscathed and looking disappointed.

"What, didn't you fight Slug?" Vegeta probed, wondering if he should have taken the Big Bad rather than the measly minions who didn't even last a minute apiece against his base form.

"Sorta." At Vegeta's raised eyebrow he detailed what had happened. "Well I got there, and there were these soldier guys who started to shoot at me. I tried to just use a small kiai wave on them to knock them out, but they had grenades on them or something and they all exploded. Then there were these two little guys in hoods who hid in a side room. I tried to get them to come out, but they just shouted at me to go away and then I heard this click and the room they were in was filled with fire. 'Trash Incinerator', it said next to the door."

Vegeta rubbed both temples with his right hand, sighing heavily into the fabric of his new gloves. He corrected himself on his earlier assumption: they were **all **stupid.

"Then I found Slug in his throne, and I told him to stop what he was doing right away, but he only laughed at me. He was an old guy Vegeta! He looked ancient, like Kami only fatter. He told me that I couldn't stop him and he tried to fire an energy wave at me, but I guess it was more strain than he was used to and had a heart attack."

"PAHAHAHA!" Vegeta erupted into laughter, delighting in the shear patheticness of it all. Goku had expressed mercy to them all, and they killed themselves on accident. That was better than anything he had heard in a long time and knew that he'd be chuckling at it for years to come.

"It's not that funny," Goku sulked, wishing he could've at least gotten a fight in before it had all been over.

"It is Kakarot, it completely is," Vegeta continued to laugh as they took flight back to their ship. The whole event would later be remembered by them only as 'that thing that happened on the way back from fighting Broly' and Lord Slug lived on as the punch line for most of Vegeta's degrading comparisons or jokes.

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Six months remained to them before the androids returned. Since returning back to Earth, the Z-Fighters had picked up their training (and spare senzu beans when they had finally sprouted, learning not to go anywhere without one) in an effort to squeeze in as much as they could before the prophesized day arrived. Morale actually was pretty high among them. They knew that the androids were probably going to be stronger opponents than Broly, but nothing in the world would ever seem quite so bad after surviving the titanic battle on that unnamed planet with the LSSJ.

So it was that Vegeta wasn't completely freaking out when, after a month and a half of living in a mutually surprising relationship with Bulma, she shyly confronted him one afternoon after what had been an ordinary day. He looked at her in silence, which had actually become commonplace with the Prince, tilting his head backward a bit to view her from down his nose. Running a hand along his jaw and then his scar, he hid his mouth behind closed fingers while his thumb was pressed against his cheek bone. Taking a couple of steps back, he sat on the corner of what had unofficially become "their" bed and steepled both sets of fingers, index fingers meeting just below his bottom lip while the others splayed forward like the plumage of a peacock.

"Now," he started, voice quite, "when you say…'pregnant'-"

"I mean that I'm carrying our child, yes," Bulma confirmed. She wasn't sure exactly what she was expecting him to have done, but this seemed like a better alternative than most anything else the Vegeta could have done. Like almost kill himself in training. Or completely kill Yamcha in "training". "This is what you should expect when two people are…intimate for any amount of time. It's just a matter of-" She searched for the right word, but came up with nothing. This was as much a shock to her as it was to the saiyan.

"So, the child will be like Kakarot's boy? Half human and half saiyan?" He looked up at her with searching eyes, probably wondering when his life had turned from galactic conquest to unexpected fatherhood.

"If neither of us has changed our species, then yeah. If he's going to be half saiyan, does that mean he's going to have one of those tails?" Vegeta just shrugged in response, shoulders rising higher than usual and lingering awkwardly, as though he didn't quite remember why he had lifted them in the first place.

The blue haired genius watched the Prince try to sort out the information and almost giggled at how cute it was when he was stumped. She didn't know if what they had between them was love, but the bond connecting them had grown stronger as the weeks passed. She knew that he would never hurt her, at least physically, and sometimes they could almost see what the other was thinking from just a look. He had mostly stopped calling her just "woman" and she mostly stopped referring to him as "your royal pain in the ass". She had to admit to herself that it hadn't been like this with Yamcha. The former bandit had been sweet to her, but he couldn't lock down in one relationship and hadn't really ever been as in sync with her as the would-be destroyer of the planet now was.

"How long will you carry him?" Vegeta inquired, apparently having fully grasped the situation.

"Well, the doctor said it started about a month ago, so it might be time in six or seven months."

Vegeta grimaced at that, and at first Bulma believed that it was about the child. But she remembered what else was due in six months. If the androids killed all of them, then the child would grow up without a father, or maybe even not at all. It was still early in the term, but already Bulma couldn't even bring herself to think about losing her baby to a bunch of heartless machines. Vegeta rose, a fire in his eyes.

"Where's the phone?" he asked in a brusque tone. Wordlessly she pointed at the nightstand and he marched over and snatched up the cellular. Wrapping her arms around her as of yet un-swollen belly, Bulma watched him poke buttons delicately, mindful of the last time he had tried to dial in anger. As soon as he had finished inputting the number he held it to his ear and waited. Several seconds passed before he realized there wasn't a ringtone and quickly pressed the 'dial' button, scarlet creeping into his cheeks as Bulma giggled.

"Kakarot?" Bulma was a surprised to hear who he had called. She hadn't even known that he knew the number; he usually only called the local pizza parlor. "Oh, Gohan. Is your scatter-brained father there? Well wake him up then; he and I need to train. I know we trained yesterday squirt, I'm not as absent minded as some others I know. The situation's changed and I need to be sure that we're both ready for those tin cans. One more thing: make him take the heart disease antidote right now. If he has the virus, we're preempting it, and if he doesn't have it then he gets a grape flavored drink."

He hung up, still not friendly enough to say a farewell. Tossing the phone onto the bed, he strode towards the door but stopped before exiting out into the hall, looking back at Bulma.

"If I am to soon have a child, I sure as Hell won't let a few androids get in the way of me training it to surpass Kakarot's own." And then he was gone, leaving an exasperated Bulma to roll her eyes at his reasoning and smile at his acceptance her pregnancy.

"Now, what should we name you?" She asked her stomach, rubbing it slowly as though it actually were the baby. "If you're a girl, maybe Bra. If you're a boy like your daddy, then how about…"

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Despite Vegeta's general silence and Bulma's uncertainty of her friend's reaction, the word quickly got out that she was expecting. It was a matter of great excitement for most and confusion for others, but overall they were happy for her and praised the Prince. For his part, Vegeta tried to act like nothing was different and each day was the same as the last. But as Bulma's belly began to expand and Goku couldn't help but ask him about baby names in the middle of sparring matches, the royal saiyan was quickly forced into accommodating the needs of the pregnant woman into his daily activities.

Goku lent help whenever he could, and Dr. Briefs and Bunny were very supportive of the two, but Vegeta had not anticipated just how taxing it would be. Before too long, Bulma was now quite heavy with child, spending most of her time in bed, or on the couch with a random flavored carton of ice-cream. She would constantly call for him no matter where in the house he was at the time and tell him to rub her back, or refill her iced tea, or get some warm towels, or change the channel on the TV, or get her bananas (she went through a whole phase where the only thing she ate all day for weeks was bananas; Vegeta could hardly stand to look at them now).

Whenever he managed to slip out for some training, she insisted that he carry a cellphone with him so she could call him if she needed something. The one time he had shouted back through the phone that her parents could it for her (albeit with a few more curse words thrown in) she had burst into tears and sobbed that he was abandoning her and the baby. Trapped, he had cut his training with Gohan and Piccolo short and used Instant Transmission to return to her side. Once she saw that he was there, she threw a mostly empty bowl of potato chips at his head and called him some choice names that had succeeded in making him blush. She had then demanded a foot massage to make up for his 'negligence'.

'Broly might have had the better fate' Vegeta seethed to himself that night, guilt-tripped into making Bulma an entire tray of cinnamon rolls. Saiyans weren't normally inclined to cook, but anyone could follow the dead simple instructions printed and illustrated on the side of the tube the dough had come in. 'I wonder if this is what Nappa went through with myself and my father. May you find peace in the Afterlife you poor bastard.' He paused for a moment, hands sticky and the oven door hanging open, heat spilling out. 'Did I just feel empathic towards Nappa?' Shaking his head, he decided that he probably needed the time away from Goku anyway. Too much of a positive influence for his liking.

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Krillin hadn't meant to become friends with the Prince of all Saiyans, honest. Yet here he was, at a coffee shop in North City with a very tired looking Vegeta who was nursing a richly scented mug of brew, three empty cups already resting about the table. The former monk had just stopped by Capsule Corp. to check in on Bulma, but when he had seen the saiyan actually fall asleep standing in front of the microwave while the popcorn inside burnt, he had decided to intervene. With the excuse of 'needing an extra set of hands to move a mountain', he had led a nearly zombified Vegeta out the door and towards caffeine, and plenty of it.

Now here they were, halfway through a conversation about the pros and cons of tropical fruit and mingling like any other citizen on the planet; except they just happened to be two of the strongest.

"I don't care if it looks like me," Vegeta insisted as he tapped his finger on the tabletop to the beat of the muzzack playing softly in the background, "pineapple is disgustingly sweet and is designed to spear you through the mouth."

"Aw, you've probably only had the treated ones then. They make 'em sweeter than natural ones so you don't need to put them into syrup or anything," Krillin countered, taking a bite from the bagel he had ordered and licking stray cream cheese from the corners of his mouth.

"That's disgusting. Who'd ever want to wittingly eat science experiments?"

"They're not that bad. They even helped farmers make a bit more money as they don't need to go through third party processors."

"Pah," Vegeta grunted, flicking his fingers upward in what had become his way of discarding the current topic. Taking several gulps from his earthenware mug, the prince cast his eyes over the other customers of the establishment. "Why are there so many teenagers here? Don't they have better things to do than to buy overpriced drinks and play on their computers?"

"You'd think," Krillin murmured, not really noticing the worldly ignorant teens so much as the ones who had brought dates with them. Wherever he looked, it seemed like everyone had a significant other. Even Vegeta, the often times callous and haughty prince of a warrior race, had managed to attract Bulma and vice versa. Was there really no hope for a tallish dwarf monk without a nose and shaven head?

"When I was going through puberty, I was slaughtering billions on the orders of a tyrant, not looking up nude pictures or playing fantasy games," he gestured at a bespectacled youth in the corner who apparently heard them and turned beat red, hastily shutting out of whatever site he had been browsing.

"I was always training," Krillin shared, watching the remainder of his own coffee swirling around the bottom of the cup. "It seemed like there was one big thing that happened, then we were getting ready for the next Budokai. Red Ribbon Army, the return of King Piccolo. We barely saw Goku in those three year absences, always off doing the next hardest training he could find and come back to completely overshadow us." He sighed protractedly. Vegeta gave him a look over the rim of the coffee the waiter had just set down in front of him.

"Resentful?" Krillin thought about it for a minute before answering.

"A bit. Not of Goku, but of Goku being from a race better developed for fighting than humans. Nothing we can do will ever bridge the gap between us and we'll always be the guys who get beaten up until you or Goku arrives."

Vegeta pondered this in silence. He had never given much thought to how the humans and namekian might be feeling as the saiyans rose to ever higher fields of strength. It was exactly what he had felt when he had languished in the knowledge that Goku had somehow beaten him here on Earth, or when he had fought the Ginyu Force effortlessly where the Prince had failed miserably. It was that kind of anger and frustration that could motivate and empower a saiyan, but humans didn't have such an advantage. For them to increase their power it required years of training, no convenient zenkais or transformations to help out.

"Maybe," he started, looking into the mid-distance at his memories of his fights with the Z-Fighters, both against them and as one of them, "there is a way for you to build that bridge." Krillin raised an eyebrow at him, nonverbally telling him to continue. "That technique that Kakarot used when we first met to overpower me, the Kaioken, it multiplies your strength exponentially. He used it to rise from around eight thousand in scouter units to well over my twenty five thousand in seconds."

"I thought you said that his power level was over **nine** thousand?"

"Shut up. Now, if Kakarot could learn that trick from King Kai, then why not you humans as well?" Krillin was mulling it over, so Vegeta continued. "You could get Kakarot to teach you, or maybe contact King Kai telepathically. He said it was a dangerous technique, but I don't really see how he can say that to-"

He broke off suddenly as he stood bolt upright, scalding hot coffee spilling onto the table and dripping down off the sides. Krillin jumped up as well to avoid the beverage and was about to yell at Vegeta just what he had been thinking until he saw the saiyan's face.

"Bulma," the Prince whispered briefly before running out the door and blasting off into the evening sky. Quickly following after him and leaving the occupants of the coffee shop in stunned disbelief, he cast his senses out to find the single ki signature of one of his oldest friends. With shock, he discovered that it had spiked erratically and was spasming in time to what he assumed was her breathing exercises. Vegeta must have been unconsciously keeping track of her through their whole conversation, and Krillin had been none the wiser.

Though he was easily outstripped by the alien royalty, Krillin knew that he would make it in plenty of time for the birth of Vegeta and Bulma's child.

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**AN: **_Another short chapter with barely any action in it at all and still took forever to post. Kind of a balance for that last one, but it gets pretty tedious writing exposition in a way that is faithful to the characters (as I see them, admittedly). Well, the next chapter is the start of the android saga, so we can look forward to copious amounts of ass-kickery taking place there. How will two super saiyans affect the battle, especially now that Goku's taken the antidote for his virus and nipped that threat in the bud?_

_ For those that don't like what I did to Slug here, too bad. He's a filler villain this time, not a movie one, and that means embarrassing defeat. Not to mention he was still in his 'old as dirt's grandfather' state so he wasn't exactly going to be much of a problem anyway._

_ And thanks again to those of you who reviewed last chapter. But please, for all future posterity, don't tell me I should use the "Bringer of Death" scale of power leveling. First off, it's kind of rude to say my system is inferior, and secondly, I don't need to use their system for my story. I'm taking a much different approach to viewing the show and manga than those authors, and as such the…immense level of realism and scientific guide lines are not necessary for "WiaM". So please, refrain from such comments in the future if you would be so kind._

_ Thanks for reading!_


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